Magical Mix
by venus100561
Summary: Magic and Chakra are powerful together. Using these two energies, you can do anything. You can even hide an entire continent. This exact thing was done to prevent a war. But nothing lasts forever. What will happen when two worlds meet? HPNaruto Crossover
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter.

Alright, I'm submitting the last thing this site needs. Another Naruto/Harry Potter crossover. But can you blame me? I just love them. It's hard for me not to want another crossover on the site! But after reading many many _many _crossovers. Based on what I've seen, there's no way I can do any worse then some of the people here.

There's not going to be any pairings in this story. It's going to take place past the Tsunade arc and during the 5th year. Because the 5th year is freaking awesome.

Summary: A powerful mix. Chakra, and magic. Together they can do anything, any spell, perhaps even revive the dead. With this combination, wizards and ninja hid a continent, as to avoid a war. Nothing lasts forever, the magic faded, as did the chakra. And so for the first time in thousands of years, the two cultures are united. But what bonds will form? What will happen? Only time can tell.

"Talking" - The main language at the time.

"_Talking" _- Foreign Language at the time. That or emphasizing. I'll trust you to tell the difference.

**---**

**Chapter One**

It was a brilliant mix, unlike anything that had been seen before. Magic and Chakra, two completely different things, yet together they were something terribly powerful. Too powerful for any one person to handle, not even fourteen of the most elite wizards and Shinobi could handle it. It was a death sentence.

Yet somehow they managed to gain something greater. Their death was not in vain.

Perhaps a bit of background story is necessary.

Two secret worlds were at war, not because of some stupid good/evil thing, it was because both sides felt threatened by each other. Wizards because these people only needed hands and weapons to kill, Shinobi because wizards could mutter a few words and they'd be dead instantly.

It wasn't until a man named Jiro came up with idea to end the war that they had a temporary truce. Jiro had been studying magic secretly and using magical theory, he came up with technique that applied both powers. There would be fourteen people, seven ninja, seven wizards. Seven was the lucky number after all.

The idea of it all was to remove the continent all Shinobi were from. Not literally, just hide it.

Three of the wizards would cast a vanishing charm, two would cast a concealment charm and another two would cast a silencing charm. As for the Shinobi, three would be directing the magic. (Jiro had discovered similar properties in magic and chakra, so it would just take a little more concentration to direct it.) One of those three would direct it into the land, the other would be directing it into the air, the last would be making sure it formed a bubble around the continent. As for the other four, they would be casting a powerful genjutsu to fool any person into thinking there was an ocean in the continent's place.

The result of this was nearly perfect, while it created a bubble around the continent, no chakra or magic could escape or enter it. The chakra that was sealed inside atmosphere directly above the land started gathering after a long time. These pure concentrations of chakra created living entities of their own. With enough killer intent, these entities became evil. Nine in total were created. They were labeled tailed-demons.

These demons wandered the continent for many years. It is not documented when they started. They attacked many villages and towns, and in the end, destroyed any records of the magic-users that were left.

All villages were in the dark about the outside world.

Time passed. Lots of time. It was hard to say when the spell would fade away and the bubble of Chakra surrounding the lands would break, but it held up. Wars came and passed, generations were born, and technology evolved on both sides. Each equally unaware of each other.

Even more time passed. Yet the spell held.

More time passed.

It broke.

No one on the Earth was prepared for it. Ninja and wizards alike. Jiro's chakra/magic combination held both energies in it for thousands of years. Think of a cage, a cage that lets nothing out. When that cage is finally opened, both energies escaped and spread about the world.

All around the world, magic sensitive people shivered as the shockwave of magic and chakra passed through them. A majority just shrugged it off and continued what they were doing at the time. However, far away, in the Ministry of Magic, people were working overtime to solve a mystery that had just surfaced. A large mass of land had just appeared out of nowhere. According to sources, for whatever reason, no muggles could see it, only wizards. Thankfully that solved any issue they had with any need to mass oblivate.

But now they had to investigate how the hell something like this hid under the Ministry's nose for so long. So all they could do was call some Aurors and have them investigate this new world.

But they didn't know the dangers of this new land. For all they knew there were dragons and trolls all around. So of course, the logical thing to do was to call someone expendable.

They called Tonks.

It was rumored that she was working under Dumbledore. It wasn't confirmed, but a rumor was enough. Oh man, she was pissed when she got the owl. They were curling their toes in glee.

And so she received an owl right as she was about to finish up her work.

—

Tonks was unhappy. One, she was having one of her better days of work in _weeks _until she got that stupid owl. They had an Order meeting the next day, and she was supposed to go on some sort of long term mission. As she read the letter, she was even more gloomy. This didn't give her any information, and she was expected to be there in ten mi—_Oh crap._

She threw away the message and quickly finished the form she was signing. Making sure she put on some make up for good measure, she apparated away from her office and into the Main Ministry office. Tonks let out a low whistle as she saw how empty the Ministry meeting place was. Usually it was all hustle and bustle, but being here alone...it was cool.

"Nice to see you, Tonks," a voice from behind said. She jumped and spun around in shock. Oh, it was just the Minister of Magic.

"Uh, hello Fudge. What'd you call me out for?" Might as well get straight to the point.

He glanced at the map that hung on the wall. Tonks followed his gaze and gasped. "At 11 PM, there was a strong influx of magic, you might've felt it, yes?" She nodded. So that's what she felt... "Well, after taking a look at where it came from, it showed large mass of land in the Pacific Ocean. For whatever reason muggles can't see it. However, we don't know what's there. We want you to investigate."

"Have you already done a flyby of the area?"

"Yes." No. The flybys were really scheduled for an hour after Tonks left. "We saw nothing too dangerous, but we still want a closer look at the people or creatures inhabiting the land. Do you accept?"

"I accept!" The way Tonks saw it, it was a great opportunity to see new places and experience new things. Maybe she would discover a new species when she got there and she would be put in the History of Magic books! Maybe she would have a Chocolate Frogs Card made in her honor!

She was allowed to dream, wasn't she?

The Minister pointed his wand towards an area and the exact coordinates for that area appeared right above the wand. Tonks studied the coordinates for a moment before apparating away with a pop.

—

_Language Change_

Tonks was trained to be ready for anything. Trolls, pixies, boggarts, and dozens of other monsters.

What she _wasn't _prepared for were kids and an adult throwing knives at her. The kind she only saw in museums and muggle kung-fu movies. But, thank goodness for the fit demeanor required for Aurors. If she didn't have that, she might've been impaled by now.

"_Now now now_," she said nervously. "_Can't we work this out?_" The kids hesitated for a moment. She sighed in relief.

"Who are you?" one of them asked. Tonks let out another sigh of relief. Thank goodness for her luck. The Minister should've suspected that these people spoke another language, she was just lucky it was the only one she learned as a child. Unfortunately for her, she let her guard down and in a second, she had a knife at her throat. Crap.

"I am Tonks Nymphadora." Strange Eastern traditions... "Call me Tonks,"she quickly added in. "Who are you? And why is there a knife to my throat." They didn't bother to correct her.

"We have no reason to tell you"a red eyed woman said.Was that natural?

"Uh, okay then, I know this might seem odd, but where am I?"

"You're in the country of fire,"the boy with a dog growling at his ankles answered. Tonks nodded. What an odd name...

"How did you appear in front of us like that?" the boy that held the knife to her throat asked. From the corner of her eye, she saw the high collared cloak he wore. Was he a vampire? _Did she come to a land filled with vampires?! _Oh right, there was sun out.

"Eh-heh-heh, uhm, trade secret." Well, it could've been worse. She could've apparated in a crowded marketplace. Or she could be dead by now. As long as the Ministry didn't find out about this, she was in top shape.

"You're from that land that appeared outside of the Wave Country!" Kiba exclaimed.

Damn, these kids were perceptive. She admitted defeat. Maybe they would take her to their leader or something. Maybe they would ignore the fact that she appeared in front of them out of nowhere. Fat chance. "That's true. I'm a representative of the Ministry of England. I've come here to investigate the mass of land that appeared on our maps at 11 PM, June 30th." Yay! Official sounding! They looked up at her.

"Come with us," Kiba ordered, "We were given a mission to investigate the borders of that land, you just made it ten times easier."

"Now now, Kiba, she may just be an enemy that's pretending to be from the land." The red-eyed woman scanned her over carefully. "Highly unlikely though, it's hard to find cloaks like that in hidden villages. I've only seen the Aburame clan and ANBU with anything remotely resembling them. Even those are different. More practical. ...She's probably not a threat. Keep an eye on her anyway."

"Hey! I'm right here you know!" How indignant. Talking like she's not there.

"Yeah, we know, now come with us."

"I guess I'll go then...?" She didn't seem to have an option. Alarm bells started ringing in her highly trained Auror head. Rule number one: Don't follow strangers. Especially ones that attack you the moment they see you. Damn, was she already taken prisoner? Well, she could apparate away, and they didn't know that. Sort of. Best to use it to her advantage.

"Are you a civilian?" Shino asked. Civilian? Must be another word for muggle. Were these people wizards too?

"Yes." Was that convincing?

"Looks like we got about a days walk then." Finally, Tonks felt the knife against her throat loosen. The high-collared boy took several steps away from here.

"What time is it now?" Tonks asked,

"It's 2 PM now. At some point we're going to have to stop and make camp."

"Oh, okay." Slowly, they started their walk back to Konoha. "Hey, where're we going? I mean, it is polite! Also, what are your names? I've already told you mine, it's only fair if you tell me yours." They looked at Kurenai who gave them the go ahead.

"I'm Inuzuka Kiba, this is Aburame Shino, and this is Hyuuga Hinata, that's Kurenai-sensei, and this is Akamaru!" He pointed to everyone as he named them off. When Akamaru was mentioned, the white dog barked and wagged his tail. White? Didn't aka mean red...? "We're heading towards Konoha."

"S-So, Tonks-san, can you te-tell us about your w-world?" Hinata asked.

Tonks tried to look deep in thought as she considered the idea. It would be a good way to earn trust, and she didn't even have to tell them about magic. She knew Author Weasley! She could tell them all about muggle machines! "Well, I suppose so. But in return you have to tell me about yours. Deal?" Oh, she was good.

"Deal," Kiba replied. They would only tell the bare essentials anyway.

Tonks' smile grew. "Well..."

—

_Language Change_

Dumbledore was a very perceptive person. Being interrupted in the middle of work due to an influx of magic was something that concerned him greatly. More magic usually equaled an enemy, yet there was no attack

It had left the headmaster wondering if he was getting senile. That is, until the Daily Prophet arrived about eight hours after he felt it. As he read the front article, he fell back onto his seat in a daze.

**Hidden Continent?**

By Jonathon Carles

_Is it truly possible to hide a large mass of land from a world filled with over 6 billion people? Muggles and Wizards alike? Apparently they can. At exactly 11 PM on June 30__th__, a continent was reported appearing next to the Americas and Asia. The most unique thing about the continent is the fact that muggles can't see it. The Ministry is currently investigating. It is unknown if there is any humanoid life on this new world. _

_Currently all we know from several flybys over the continent is that it contains a desert, many forests and signs of destruction. Natural Disasters, perhaps? There also appears to villages and towns of settlement, but none seem to compare to London or any of the modern towns and cities around the world. _

_The Ministry suspects that the residents of these villages are, in fact, not wizards and have not been exposed to magic. This continent has been considered not a threat, however they urge all Wizards to not travel to this place without the Ministry's permission or they face three years in Azkaban. There may be magical threats that have yet to be found._

_More information will be published when the Auror sent to investigate returns._

Dumbledore could quickly see the lies in this article. If there were villages and towns, then there

obviously human life, or at least, human like. Maybe not completely so, but enough to have the intelligence of one. The next thing was that these people obviously were magical in some way, the influx of magic earlier that day should've been enough to tell the Ministry at least that. Being the person that he was, he felt the strong urge to investigate this place himself.

It's not like they were going to object, they would send him and hoped he died.

He really hated his government.

Nevertheless, they were the only one that could allow him to go to this intriguing new world. With a quick wave of his wand, he was clad in work robes and with a small pop, he apparated away to the Ministry.

And as suspected, the Ministry was not happy to see him. They very first thing they did was shoot glares at him, however noone said anything or made any remarks. It was quite a pleasant change.

"Hello," he said cheerfully at the witch at the desk. "I've come to see the Minister."

"Do you have an appointment?" She said dryly. Dumbledore shook his head. His smile never faltered.

"Then he can't see you. He's a very busy man you know." It may have been fate, but as soon as those words left her mouth, the Minister walked into the building with a couple of friends laughing. The poor witch looked as if she were going to pound her head into her desk several times. Luckily the witch resisted.

"Oh, Cornelius," said Dumbledore pleasantly surprised. He wasn't really. The man quieted mid-laugh. He narrowed his eyes.

"Hello Dumbledore. Can't say I'm not surprised to see you. You've gotten the paper already, have you?"

Albus nodded. "Good, we can skip the formalities. So will the Ministry let me?"

"Well, there's no po–"

"_Hem, hem,_" a sickly sweet voice piped in. "Now Dumbledore," the witch started. "Did you really think the Ministry would let you go without any gaining anything?" Fudge appeared surprised at the women's interruption. Dumbledore did too. The witch turned towards the Minister. "I have a proposition, Minister." She leaned in and whispered something. Cornelius' expression changed from one to surprise to an ominous smile.

"Dolores, that is a brilliant idea!" he exclaimed. A sudden sinking feeling settled into Dumbledore's stomach. The Minister turned towards the headmaster. "Perhaps you should follow me into my office." Albus just nodded.

The Minister lead them through a different entrance, one that was nearly impossible to find. So of course it was the perfect place for the Minister to do all his dirty work without anyone seeing. After many more twists and turns, they found a grand white door waiting at the end of a hallway. It was familiar to Dumbledore, he was here often. The entrance to the office changed places every couple of days, as to elude possible assassins. Dumbledore admitted to himself that this was by far the most confusing way to get there yet. The three walked down the hallway and pushed open the door to reveal a very eccentric office.

Gold lined the curtains that were placed artistically against the enchanted window that showed whatever Fudge felt it should show. The desk was pure oak, polished and glossy. Several sneakoscopes were on the selves, quite antique sneakoscopes at that. A pensieve was at the very top of the shelf, almost impossible to see. Books lined the walls and a dazzling rug designed with unicorns, nymphs and centaurs was under the Minister's desk. The chairs were fairly simple, yet still elegant for a mere office.

Dumbledore took his place in one of these chairs, in Umbridge the other.

"Dolores just came up with a most brilliant idea. We let you go to the continent, and you let a Ministry Official take up the empty position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Do you agree?"

"Yes," Dumbledore said. He understood quite well that whatever he found on the continent would be much worthwhile then having a member of the Ministry working at his school. If the darkest wizard in the world feared him, someone from the Ministry barely made a blip in his own fear radar. However, this wasn't the response that the two expected. They expected more of a fight, not just to suddenly agree.

"Come again?" Cornelius said dumbfounded.

"I said yes. Whom ever the Ministry Official is you choose, they are now the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Now, unless there is any thing else you would like to say, then I'll be taking my leave." Dumbledore stood up suddenly and apparated away with a pop.

—

_Language Change_

Tonks and Kiba (and sometimes Hinata and Kurenai) talked animatedly for hours, each describing their world and the people that inhabited it. Tonks was shocked to hear that this world was filled with ninja ('So they weren't magical...'). Kurenai, Kiba, and Hinata were both equally surprised to hear of the muggles' technology ("A piece of metal with wheels? Liar!"). Tonks was sure not to mention anything about magic, she certainly didn't want the Ministry out for her head. By the time Tonks was just explaining the process of muggle blenders (she had never been gladder to know the Weasleys), it was around 9 PM. Shino and Kurenai stopped.

"Let's set up camp," he said as he observed the still darkening sky. Tonks and Kurenai nodded in agreement.

"Do you have enough sleeping bags for myself and all you?" Tonks asked concerned. They paused.

"No," Hinata said.

"So what are we going to do?" Tonks questioned. If worse came to worse, she could just conjure one up, but that would eventually require an oblivate, and she was terrible at those kind of spells.

"I'll sleep on the ground, I'm used to it," Shino said. Tonks looked unconvinced. "I've done it before in training. It's not that bad," he tried to reassure. Tonks shrugged and eventually accepted it. Kurenai grinned evilly.

"Good idea! No sleeping bags except for the civilian! It's training!" The entire team groaned.

Muttering under her breath, the witch said, "I'm glad Molly isn't here, she'd be going nuts." After a moment's pause, she broke out in laughter.

"What is it, Tonks-san?" Hinata curiously asked.

"Well," she began, "Where I'm from, people your age are considered incapable of taking care of themselves. Normally they don't begin their education until 11 years old. One of my...friends is a mother of seven, and she's very over protective. At the thought of kids your age sleeping outside without sleeping bags, she'd probably be pulling her hair out in horror." Kiba suddenly gaped, though not for the reason she suspected.

"_Seven children?_" he asked disbelievingly. "How does she handle them all? No, how did she have them all? She must be like..._fifty."_

Tonks stared. "She's past fifty." Kiba gaped some more.

"I see," Hinata said slowly. "Your world is less dangerous then ours, so your casualty rates are much lower. Not to mention all the technology your world has, your medicine must be just as advanced."

Tonks grimaced. "Truth be told, I'm not sure about the casualty rates at the moment. Our world is just entering a second war. The first one was supposedly won 13 years ago, but it turns out our enemy was just...resting. Now he's just resurfaced and our government refuses to say he's back. One of my superiors is being bashed by the newspaper because he's getting old and noone believes him when he says our enemy has returned. The newspaper is printing constant lies about the boy that stopped our enemy 13 years ago. Any mysterious deaths are labeled as accidents and as the death toll increases, noone is stopping him." Oh man, she was proud of her improvising skills. Wait, _shit, _she just revealed too much.

Hinata gave a sympathetic look. "That...that's much worse then the wars we have to fight. I don't wish to be rude, but your government needs to have a couple things overlooked." Tonks nodded in agreement.

"We should get to sleep now," Shino said. Tonks was relieved. Yay, an opportunity to make sure she shut up.

"Alright." The witch took what was normally Hinata's sleeping bag. "Thanks again." Quietly, she got into it and fell into a deep sleep. For the Shinobi, they too feel asleep, but into a much lighter one. By the time everyone was sleeping, Kurenai was the only one awake. She stayed awake for hours, scanning the bushes and landscape for dangers, just as she determined her genin team was safe, a soft pop was heard. One that normally wouldn't wake them up, but it was loud enough for the genjutsu master to hear.

"Who's there?" She asked. Kurenai pulled out a kunai from her pouch and held it out in front of her defensively. She continued to scan the area, though much more intensely then before.

"Oh, did I startle you?" A man in flowing robes asked. Kurenai could only gape at how stupidly he was dressed. He wore a purple cloak, not unlike Tonks-sans, with yellow stars adorning it. The pointed cone _thing _on his head was styled in a similar fashion. His long white beard was tucked into his belt and he had a pleasant smile on his face.

"Who are you?" She asked, her kunai still in hand.

"I am Dumbledore Albus." Good, he remembered their odd traditions. He took a quick glace over to the only sleeping bag on the ground. "I see you found my comrade. Are those children safe sleeping there?" It was then the trio began to stir, Akamaru was the first one up. As the puppy saw the unfamiliar intruder, he began to bark, the three stood up suddenly with a similar weapons in hand as Kurenai.

"Kurenai-sensei who's he?" Hinata asked.

"Honestly, I'm not sure myself. Keep your defense."

"I suppose I must repeat myself. I am Dumbledore Albus, headmaster of the school my friend over here went to," he explained. He pointed to the sleeping Tonks who at the moment was sleeping very soundly. They glanced uncertainly at the girl. Was she leading him straight to them.

"Should we wake her up?" Hinata asked.

"We should, there's noone else to confirm. He may be lying, but it's unlikely he'd do such a thing with someone there to confirm it. He might start hypnotizing her when she wakes up. Keep him in line a moment, I'll wake her up." Kiba suddenly darted from his position to the man, he held the kunai to his throat. Dumbledore was so surprised he almost cast a wandless spell at the child, luckily he managed to restrain himself.

Shino bent down and shook Tonks, she twitched and stirred. "Is it morning already?" she moaned.

"Tonks-san, do you know this man?" Hinata asked quietly. Tonks glanced at the man and jumped up.

"_Dumbledore!_" she cried happily. "_How'd you get the Ministry to allow you to come here?" _Kurenai observed the girl, there were no obvious signs of hypnosis or controlling. She did seem to know him too.

He smiled. "_That is a tale for another time, can you tell them who I am so this child can remove this knife from my throat?" _Tonks looked at the figure that was behind her old teacher and gasped.

"Kiba! Let go of him, he's the headmaster of the most prestigious school of our country!" Kiba reluctantly backed down.

"Schools can be prestigious?" Kiba asked. "No wait, never mind. Is he trustworthy?" Tonks nodded vigorously. Dumbledore watched the exchange with amused eyes.

"So who are you traveling with Nymphadora?" Tonks blushed at the use of her first name. She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Kurenai.

"We were on a mission to investigate the lands that appeared just outside our borders. On the way we met Tonks-san and decided it would be less dangerous if we just interviewed her instead. I suppose now that you've met up with her, you're going to travel with us now, aren't you?" Dumbledore appeared to ponder the question for a while, he then nodded.

"Yes I am." Kurenai sighed.

"Very well, kids, dawn's coming in a few hours, let's start traveling."

"_Hai!_" They chorused. Kiba quickly rolled up the sleeping bag Tonks was in previously and placed it on a scroll where it disappeared with a puff of smoke. Tonks wondered why she hadn't noticed it before. The Inuzuka packed it safely away in a backpack he was traveling with.

"Ready!" Kiba said. Akamaru barked and they were on their way again.

"If you don't mind me asking, how far away is your village?" Dumbledore inquired. "I'm getting old you see and it may be hard for me to travel very long distances."

"I understand. It's only about a two hours walk from here. As long as we keep going at this pace," Kurenai replied.

"I should be able to do this."

"Good."

"Now if it's not too much to ask, can you tell me about this world?" Dumbledore looked around at the surrounding tree with interest.

The genin exchanged glances. "Well, we've already told Tonks-san most if it, but I suppose we could say it again for your sake." Hinata and Kiba explained everything that most of the citizens of this world already knew, Shino and Kurenai remained silent through the most of it. The explanation went on for a full half hour. Dumbledore listened intently while Tonks just paid little attention.

"This is a fascinating world you live in," Dumbledore stated as the two came to their conclusion. "I suppose I should tell you tell you about the world I live in." They shook their heads.

"Tonks-san already told us about it," Hinata explained. "There can't been much more you can tell us." Dumbledore's eyes suddenly took on a twinkle.

"Did she tell you about magic?" All four of them raised an eyebrow at the statement and Tonks choked on air.

"_What are you doing, Dumbledore?!"_

"_I'm telling them about magic, Tonks. When I arrived here and I met these children, I checked for any signs of magic. They all have a significant amount. Just enough to allow them to enter Hogwarts wards."_

"_You can't be serious!"_

"_But I am!"_

"Majjik?" Shino asked.

"What's this Majjik?" Kiba questioned. Dumbledore only smiled.

"I believe you mentioned your energy source being something like Chakra, yes?" Dumbledore didn't bother waiting for a response. "Well we use something similar, we call it magic. I believe our magic may be an old form of Chakra that mutated sometime a very long time ago. At my school, I teach children to hone this ability and they learn several branches of magic." Dumbledore then went on to explain the types of things young witches and wizards learned and how they were used post-school. He explained the politics of the wizarding world and his own school. The Shinobi hung onto every word. Even the dignified Jounin was interested in everything he said.

"That's amazing, Doobredor-san," Hinata whispered in awe when Dumbledore concluded. "It'd be nice to learn those charms and things you mentioned." Albus looked away, he didn't want anyone to see his knowing smile.

"It's hard to believe some of those stories you've told though," Kurenai muttered. "Honestly, it sounds like you rely too much on majjik, spells to clean clothes, cook dinner? What about work, do you just sit around all day doing nothing?"

"I have to agree with you, Kurenai. I've said the same thing myself many times, as a matter of fact, every once in a while I take it upon myself to do things the non-magic way. It is truly a fascinating experience."

"I suppose it is." The red-eyed Jounin turned her full attention to the path they were taking. "Looks like we're nearing Konoha soon. When we get there, stick with us, we don't take too well to outsiders."

"Thank god, my feet are getting sore," Tonks complained.

"You aren't used to walking? I suppose with all those majjikal things you guys have, there's little need for walking, right?" Kiba questioned. She nodded.

"That's really cool," Kiba said. "I wish we could do that, it would save tons of time. I know for a fact Shikamaru would love majjik." The genin laughed, Tonks just looked at him oddly.

"No you don't, while we can get where we want in a very short period of time, doing so can be very uncomfortable, like apparating seems like you are being squeezed to death..." Tonks listed off all the reasons why Wizards transportation was uncomfortable and Hinata gasped when she heard one of the downsides of apparating.

"People split themselves in half?!"

"They eventually find their parts eventually," Tonks muttered. "Most of the time anyway."

"As enlightening as this conversation is, it appears we're here." Kurenai said. She pointed to the large gate with a large leaf symbol. The wizards recognized it as the one on the ninja forehead protectors.

"Remember to stay close," Shino reminded. "Konoha can be confusing the first time you visit here. Don't get lost."

"Alright!" Tonks said enthusiastically. She was obviously eager to explore this settlement. Following closely, the six (+Akamaru) made it past the walls and were immediately greeted by two Jounin. Kotetsu and Izumo.

"Hello," Hinata greeted. "We are back from our mission, we have brought two outsiders to help with our mission report."

They observed the two outsiders carefully, obviously looking for any threat. They were easily deemed not a threat (mostly because of Dumbledore's eccentric appearance), though they were determined weirdos.

"They can go in," Izumo concluded.

Slowly, the group of six plus a dog, made it through the large village. Awed by the Shinobi jumping across buildings like gravity was nothing, Tonks and Dumbledore almost got lost several times.

They eventually made it to the Hokage Tower, they (Tonks and Dumbledore, mostly Tonks) waited nervously outside of the office, neither of them knowing what to expect. Hinata knocked on the door.

An angry voice yelled from the office, "WHAT IS IT?! I'm about to pass out from no sleep because of this stupid paperwork!"

"I think that means we can go in," Kiba joked. Though their instincts told them otherwise, they opened the door and peered in.

"Yo, Tsunade!" Kurenai greeted. "Just got back from our mission. We managed to find two weirdos–"

"We're right here!"

"–Who were doing just that. Investigating our world. We thought it'd be easier and safer to interrogate these two instead of going to the wave country and observing the coastline."

"Yeah, I do suppose it was a good idea. Come in. Sorry about yelling," she apologized to the guests. Reluctantly the rest of the team filed in. "I'm Tsunade!" She held her hand up in greeting. Tonks resisted dropping her jaw and staring. _This _was their leader? She glanced down towards her chest. _Were those natural?! _

Oh right, she was suppose to be introducing herself."I'm Tonks Nymphadora! Call me Tonks."

"Dumbledore Albus."

"So, Tonks, Doobredor, who should we interrogate first?" Tsunade half joked. She frowned slightly, these people had hard names to pronounce.

"It'd be best to question Dumbledore, he'll tell you anything you want to know. Plus I want to see the village."

"I understand. Kurenai, stay here. Hinata, Kiba, Shino, one of you three take her around town!"

"_Hai!" _The three genin and the witch filed out of the room. Soon the room was much emptier.

"Well, I'm not quite sure what to ask, so just start explaining whatever you want to at the moment. I'll ask questions later." Kurenai rolled her eyes. These people were too crazy for her likes.

Dumbledore launched into an explanation of his world for the second time today. He was sure to leave very little out. This included mentioning the war and only vaguely touching on the Order. When he finally finished, his throat was very sore. He helped himself to a glass of water by conjuring a glass and summoning some water. Tsunade observed quietly.

"Interesting world you've got there," She mumbled. Dumbledore just chuckled. "So do you have any idea why our worlds just so suddenly mixed?"

"I have not a clue. I'm sure the answer may lay in my school's library. We have so many books that it's hard to know what's there anymore." Tsunade leaned back.

"Interesting."

Dumbledore chuckled. "Ah, now down to business." Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "I do believe I've told you about the school I ran, correct?" Dumbledore asked. She nodded, he eyes still narrowed. "Well, I'm not sure who you can spare, but I would very much like for several of your younger children to come to my school for a year or more. We start accepting children at age 11 or 12."

Tsunade was about to outright refuse, she couldn't spare anybody, that would leave part of Konoha defenseless. She then reconsidered. It would be a perfect excuse to learn about this outside world she was told about. As far as she knew, no other village was being offered this opportunity. It could give her Shinobi a chance to learn techniques that noone else knew of. They'd also be under a nice cover, and protected to boot! "Tell me more about your school." Dumbledore smiled, she was interested. He complied, he told her of the four houses and the classes that were taught. Her smile widened into a grin as he went on.

"I'm sold. There's one thing that concerns me though. You mentioned the war your world is getting into. What are the chances of my subordinates getting involved with it? I'd rather have them not involved."

"It depends on who they make friends with. Unfortunately, there's a pretty high chance of it happening because I would have to take them to the headquarters of the group working against the war. That, at the moment, is one of the safest places to stay until term begins. I fear Voldemort may even target this world for allies."

She sighed and looked down at the papers that littered her desk. "It can't be helped then. Just don't let any of them die. Now, you mentioned a boy that is targeted by the enemy, what year is he?"

"5th," Dumbledore responded. "Where is this going?"

"An information gathering mission is not going to go well with the Genin I'm sending sir, they are going to get bored very easily, perhaps a protection mission to go along with it?"

"That would be appreciated, Tsunade-sama."

"You do realize that this protection part of the mission is going to cost money, right?"

"I was not aware, but now I am. Cost is not an issue."

"Just a question. Are you sure that you want Genin for the protection part of the mission? I'm sure I can spare some Chunnin." Actually, no she couldn't, but it did sound awfully like a mission a Chunnin should handle. To her relief, Dumbledore shook his head.

"I've seen your Genin in action, they're more then capable." Haha, capable.

"There's one more thing I would like to ask of you. My Genin are still training, and being away for a year might cause them to slack off, I would like them to have a training area. Also, once a month, I would like their Jounin leaders to come and teach them or refine their techniques. Is it a deal or is it too much to ask?" Dumbledore smiled, that was it? It would be quite easy to accomplish.

"It's a deal. The 'Genin' can train on the large grounds that surround Hogwarts. Just as long as they stay out of the Forbidden Forest."

"Excellent. SHIZUNE!" Tsunade called. A small looking girl ran into the office with a worried look plastered on her face. She dipped into a low bow.

"What is it Tsunade?!" She asked quickly.

"Get someone to bring Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and be sure they bring Tonks-san back here. Also get Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Tenten, and Yamanka Ino." Shizune looked a bit surprised at the sheer number of the people she wanted, but she just bowed and ran out of the office.

Dumbledore himself was a bit surprised himself. Eight people were going to his school? Not to say that he wasn't happy but... "Are you sure you want to send eight people?" Tsunade looked him straight in they eye.

"I am sure. You mentioned you had four houses correct? I'm assuming they are separated by gender. Since I classify this as a C-ranked information gathering mission and an B-rank protection mission, I would prefer if two were in each house. It's not an official request, but it would be nice. I would like to add in, the people in the house that the boy resides in, they are the mission leaders."

"I suppose I have to do it then." Dumbledore's eyes took on a strong twinkle. Tsunade shivered with the reminder of Gai and his student.

"Good, but for now we have to wait. Knowing the brats I asked for, they're gonna take an hour just to spite me. Especially Kakashi's students."

—

The moment Tonks walked out of the building, she couldn't help but exclaim, "Wow! This place is amazing!" She stared in awe of all the sights. Kiba and Hinata chuckled. Tonks was particularly captured by the Hokage Monument.

"So who wants to give me a tour of this place?" They exchanged looks, somehow Hinata was made the tour guide by default.

"I will Tonks-san," she volunteered. Kiba and Shino nodded in approval and walked away.

"Great!" Tonks cried excitedly. "So where to first?"

"I-I'm not sure. Are you hungry?" As if to respond, Tonks' stomach growled unladylike.

"I suppose I am. Unfortunately I don't have much money." Tonks rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Uhm...I don't suppose I can borrow some money?"

"It's alright Tonks-san. Just as long as you don't get something too expensive. You can choose the place. Alright?"

"_Hai!"_ Tonks said enthusiastically. She wandered around aimlessly for several minutes before finding something that looked like a restaurant. "This place any good?" Hinata examined the sign. 'Ichiraku Ramen." She nodded. Tonks practically skipped into the stand. It was good, so long as Naruto wasn't there.

Cautiously Hinata walked into the stall. ...Crap. Her face turned a furious red as she saw who was sitting next to Tonks. _Naruto-kun..._

"Hey Hinata, I know this might be strange but uh...I can speak your language, but I can't read it. Can you tell me what they have here?" The orange-clad ninja turned around in his seat at the mention of a familiar name.

"Hi Hinata-chan!" Naruto greeted. If it was possible, Tonks could've sworn she saw Hinata go even redder. She glanced in between the two and gained a knowing smirk. So that's what it was all about.

"How about you, orange guy, what do you suggest?" Tonks asked. Naruto brushed off the orange-guy comment and launched into an explanation of all the types of Ramen she could have. Tonks ignored it for the most part and simply waited for his explanation to finish.

"I never thought anyone could be so enthusiastic about food..." Tonks said dumbfounded. She turned towards the owner of the shop. "I suppose I'll have the Miso Pork."

"Me too! Make it four!"

"I-I will too."

"Six Miso Porks coming right up!" The man disappeared to what Tonks assumed to be the kitchen.

"So orange guy, what's your name? I'm Tonks."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Future Hokage of Konoha! Where are you from? I haven't heard that accent before."

"I'm kinda a traveler. Hinata found me on a mission out of her village and brought me back here cause I was relevant to it. Pity I probably can't stay longer, I probably have to leave soon. Like a day or so," Tonks explained.

"Ramen's ready!" The cook cried. Him and a girl came out of the kitchen clutching six bowls. The girl placed two in front of Hinata and Tonks. Naruto got the other four bowls. The girl handed each other them chopsticks.

"Crap!" Tonks swore. "I should've realized you guys use these and not forks."

"Forks?" Naruto and Hinata questioned at the same time. Hinata blushed. Tonks smirked.

"You want to see some of my magic?" She asked. Hinata looked a bit surprised but she nodded anyway. Naruto leaned to see what she was doing. Tonks grabbed the wand she kept hidden in her robe. The brightly-colored ninja leaned in curiously. He had to resist laughing himself silly as he saw what Tonks was holding. Tonks muttered something inaudible under her breath. In a moment, the chopsticks shifted into something metallic and pronged. Naruto's laughter ceased.

"Wow, can you teach me that, Tonks-san?" Naruto asked.

"Probably not, you have to have something before you start training with this. I'm not good at detecting it, so I'm not sure if you have it or not. Sorry."

"So it's a bloodline limit? Cool. But for now, food!" Naruto dove into his food while Hinata and Tonks ate it much more quietly.

"Wow," Tonks muttered. "You're just as bad as my friend Ron."

"Who?" He said through a mouthful of the third bowl of ramen. Tonks looked repulsed.

"...Never mind."

"I'm sorry to interrupt this moment of enjoyment, but Naruto, Hinata, Tsunade-sama needs you. Hinata, bring Tonks-san with you." Naruto nearly choked on his ramen.

"Kakashi-sensei!" He half cried, half choked. "Don't _do _that!"

"You should get there soon. Everyone else might be there already." And so the white haired Jounin disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"We should get going, Tonks-san. Kakashi-sensei has the tendency to be late, for all we know, the Hokage could've asked us hours ago," Hinata said. She took some money out of her coat and dragged her out of the stall. After a few moment of furious slurping, Naruto joined them.

"I wonder what Tsunade-baachan wants with us, I hope it's another mission!" Naruto ranted on and until they found themselves at the Hokage tower.

—

Naruto, Hinata, and Tonks were the last to arrive in the tower. Around Tonks, she noticed six unfamiliar faces. All of them children.

"Arbus-san, Tonks-san, introduce yourselves."

"I'm Tonks Nymphadora. Call me by my fir–personal name, or I will hurt you."

"I'm Dumbledore Albus. Headmaster of Hogwards School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Pleased to meet you."

"Arbus-san is going to be your employer for the next year or so. So you better respect him. Doombredoor-san has hired two of you to protect one of his students. The six others are on a year long information gathering mission. You will be attending his school." Several people's jaws dropped in horror. "I know, you graduated already, shut up. The people for the two missions will chosen randomly."

"Furthermore, you will be expected to continue your training at his school, whether it be training early in the morning or sticking to walls during the day. Perhaps you should do both. Your Jounin instructors cannot come most of the time, but Arbus and I agreed that once a month your instructors will come by and give you new techniques and refine ones that you were suppose to have learned during the previous month. You will not attend classes that day. Any questions?"

"Tsunade-sama, who's the protection mission's charge?"

"I'm not sure, Doombredor will show you him when you leave."

"When do we leave?"

"In three weeks time, is that correct?"

"Yes. I suggest you start preparing."

"Are we undercover?" Shino asked.

"No, you're not. But I would refrain from using ninjutsu or genjutsu so you can avoid unnecessary questions," Tsunade answered. "Any other questions?" Noone raised their hands. "Alright, get going, brats."

"_Hai!" _Eight ninja left the room in various means. Ranging from jumping out the window to casually walking out.

"What about Tonks-san?" Hinata timidly asked the elder man.

"She'll be returning home for now. Don't worry about her." Hinata nodded and left.

"Now that's all settled, I have some things I have to work out. We'll be taking our leave now. See you in several weeks!" Both Tonks and Dumbledore disappeared with a pop.

"In just three weeks," Tsunade muttered as she grabbed a bottle of sake out of her drawer. "The village will be tons quieter."

—

First chapter, complete. None of you understand the amount of editing this went under. It's got to have taken at least five hours worth of it. This chapter started out 15 pages. That jumped up to twenty.

Oddly enough my fingers don't hurt. Maybe I'm becoming used to typing a lot.

I suppose I should explain a few things. Tsunade can't spare Chunnin at the time because of the recent Orochimaru attack on Konoha. I believe something like that is mentioned when Tsunade sends Shikamaru, Naruto, Chouji, Neji, and Kiba to go after Sasuke.

As for the two Jounin that greet them at the gate, I think they're those Jounin you ALWAYS see. I just didn't know there names. So I took it from some site. Now that I think about it, I may have gotten it from a fanfic. I don't remember.

For the people that are going to Hogwarts, I chose those eight because I like to write Shino and Kiba. Sasuke and Naruto are obvious choices. Sakura, Tenten, Hinata, and Ino are the ONLY main girl characters, and I want girls in each house too.

I think that's all I planned to say...if not, I'll respond to questions when I reply to reviews. So, tell me what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

**I learned a lot in these last few weeks. One, I hate the english manga of Naruto. Why, oh why did they translate the attacks?! Two, I'm _awesome _at drawing chibis. Sadly, I can't say that for anything else. Three, Windows Movie Maker hates me with a passion. Four, I can't write a normal sized chapter. I just can't. This one right here is twenty-five pages long. Five, editing all that is going to be timed next time. I swear.**

**"Blah Blah" - Talking**

**'Blah' - Thinking**

**'_Blah_' - Foreign Language at the time or emphasis. I trust you to know the difference.**

**Chapter Two**

The three week in which Dumbledore had to wait were very busy. He had to get authorization from the Ministry to set up a portkey, get supplies for eight different children, alert the Order of their presence, AND tell the teachers at the school about them.

But it would be all worth it in the end.

Hopefully.

Dumbledore could only pray that these people were as beneficial as he saw them. He just had to earn their trust over the year. Dumbledore contemplated how the year would turn out as he walked into the Ministry for the second time in a week. He had already gotten school supplies the day before. Thankfully Ollivander had wands made that could work for anyone, though they would not be as good as a custom one. The robes he had gotten were charmed to fit to anyone's size. He even had the foresight to get them custom made so they could be taken off easily in case of an attack.

Dumbledore figured they wouldn't want it any other way.

"Hello," he greeted the young witch at the counter. She looked up from the parchment she was reading. "I have an appointment." She frowned.

"Go in." Dumbledore nodded and went into the old meeting room. This room and many others were established some thousand years ago by the first Minister of Magic. From that time, the rooms hardly changed. The one that Dumbledore was currently sitting in was a small one. Gold, glittering stars lined the walls. Moving fluffy clouds were painted onto the ceiling for a calming effect. A desk stood in the center of the room with two chairs behind it and one chair in front of it.

Behind the desk stood a door that Dumbledore immediately recognized. It was one the doors to the Great Archives. Only the oldest rooms in the ministry lead to it.

Unlike the rest of this floor, the pathway to the Great Archives had changed drastically in the last years. Behind that door stood a massive maze that made the Triwizard tournament maze look like a child's game. If you didn't die in the process, you would be face with another door that would curse and jinx you into oblivion if you were not authorized to enter. If you were lucky enough to manage that, you would enter the largest room in the whole ministry. In that one room stood thousands upon thousands of files, some of them dating from the very beginning of Wizardry to the present. The Ministry and Dumbledore knew that if there was anything about the continent and the Shinobi recorded, it would be in there. There was only one problem.

It was a mess. A complete and total mess.

Dumbledore had been behind that door only about two times in his life. It was quite the experience, he remembered the file cabinets that lined the large room from ground to the ceiling. Papers flew around the room with a mere touch. Piles of research, history, and spells that few knew existed littered the room.

It wasn't until recently (about a year) that the Ministry hired about hundred unemployed trustworthy wizards to organize the room. The hardest part of all of this was that the cabinets had to be labeled, and all contents removed from them. Of course, the cabinets being magical, some of them were practically endless. They would probably be swimming in unorganized papers for quite some time.

Dumbledore took his seat and patiently waited for Fudge and whoever else was coming. Thankfully he didn't have to wait too long, the door that Dumbledore had entered opened once again and Fudge strutted in with the witch that Dumbledore recognized from the trial and from the previous meeting.

"Meet your new defense against the dark arts teacher, Dumbledore," Fudge greeted. He examined the small, pink witch closely. She seemed a little _too _happy about be instated as a teacher.

"Would you happen to have a book list prepared?" he asked. "The school year coming up quickly and I have yet to send out book lists."

"As a matter of fact, I do have it." The pink-clad woman handed a slip of very official looking paper. "You will see that the books are Ministry approved and the curriculum itself is approved by the very best."

"I assume it is," Dumbledore said with his eyes twinkling. "I expect to see you at Hogwarts in a week's time so you can prepare for you classes and get used to your private quarters. Well, now that this is attended too, now we must talk about setting up a portkey..." Fudge's eye's narrowed.

"And why did you call a meeting with me personally? Why didn't you just go to the Portkey office. I am a busy person, Dumbledore." The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes disappeared.

"The Ministry has turned the Wizarding World against me, Cornelius. You should know better then I. If I were just to apparate into the Department of Magical Transportation, surely they would've just kicked me out. I'm not trusted. Having a Ministry official at my school just supports the theory. I'm not blind nor deaf yet. I hear stories about myself." Fudge leaned back in his chair. His hand intertwined together on his lap.

"I see. I won't bother ask where the Portkey is from or to, but you must do me a favor."

"What would that favor be?"

"Make Ms. Umbridge here the High Inquisitor. As High Inquisitor, she will be able to sack teachers, sit in on their classes and grade them, she can also put up decrees and they must be followed." Hmm, so Fudge had already thought this out. Either he had gotten smarter or he was being manipulated by someone. Most likely the former.

"I agree," he finally concluded. The witch's face broke out into a wide grin. If he didn't know any better, Dumbledore would've expected her to burst out into song right about now. Fudge got out some parchment and a quill from his desk.

'_I, Cornelius Fudge, give Albus Dumbledore permission to set up a portkey from whichever location he chooses to wherever he chooses. In exchange, he is allowing Dolores Umbridge to become High Inquisitor at Hogwarts.' _Underneath the short paragraph, he sighed his name. He handed the quill over to Dolores who signed it right next to his name. Dumbledore took a quill from his robe and signed it himself.

"See you at school, Dumbledore!" Dolores said in her most mocking voice. Dumbledore chose to ignore the witch and instead to apparate away.

Dear god, what had he gotten himself into?

—

_Language Change_

Dumbledore managed to complete all his goals in the allotted time. Though when he had told the Order and the staff about his plans to bring foreign students in, they obviously weren't too keen on the idea (minus Tonks). They had protested and tried to convince the older man otherwise, but he was as solid as rock. The adults eventually had to give up and just let the old wizard do as he wishes.

But they didn't have to like it.

It was the final week of summer and Dumbledore was scheduled to pick up the students and inform them of things he may have forgotten to mention in the last visit.

For some reason, he wasn't surprised when he apparated into the Hokage's office only to find it without any of the ninja he requested and Tsunade practically stabbing paperwork with her stamp.

"Tsunade-sama?" Dumbledore asked uncertainly. She looked up and with a moment of revelation turned her head towards the calendar. A calendar that the headmaster was amused to see with the current date circled and a chibi Tsunade's dancing around happily.

"I apologize, Doombredor-san, We weren't sure exactly when you were coming. However, I told them all to arrive here in about thirty minutes time. I figured you'd arrive at the same time as you did previously," the woman explained, "I was close, I suppose."

"Ah, I should be the one apologizing, considering I didn't set up a time to meet with you and the children." Dumbledore took out his wand and Tsunade watched as a chair appeared out of nowhere. "If it's not too much trouble, I'd like a short profile of the children going to my school." Tsunade nodded and turned to her bookshelf. She went through the files quickly and occasionally picked on out of the shelf. She finished her searching quickly and handed the profiles to Dumbledore.

"These are profiles temporarily given to a person requesting a mission. They have mission success rates, special skills, and a picture of them taken on their first day as a ninja," Tsunade explained. "Return them to me when you're done looking through them." Dumbledore took a seat on the chair that he had summoned and started looking through the profiles.

He read through Ino's, Tenten's, Sasuke's, Sakura's, and was currently skimming through Naruto's. Based on what he read, he was mentally putting people in houses. He was a bit disappointed when he discovered that nowhere in the profile did it say anything about the children's personality, which he KNEW was important to the sorting. When he finally finished with Shino's profile, he handed the folder back to Tsunade, who carefully put them back on the shelves. It was then that the ninja started arriving.

"Tsunade-sama, our team is here," Shino said quietly. Indeed, behind him stood the girl that Dumbledore recognized as Hinata and the boy Kiba. Dumbledore looked down at Kiba's feet and saw the dog Akamaru, loyal as always.

Oh. That was going to be a problem.

"Tsunade-sama. At my school, students are allowed to bring only three types of pets. Toads, Cats, and Owls. What do you suggest we do?" She didn't even look up from her paperwork.

"Think of Akamaru as tool, rather then a pet." The puppy barked at the woman. She suddenly smirked. "If worse comes to worse, I'm sure you can turn him into a cat." Kiba looked horror stricken and Hinata giggled at the reaction.

"NO! Akamaru is never going to act like a cat, smell like a cat, or sound like a cat! He is not going to be a–" He wrinkled his nose. "–_Feline._"

"Relax, Kiba, I'm sure she was just joking," Naruto said as he jumped in from the window. "But that'd make a great prank." He grinned in a way that was strangely ominous. "I'll be sure to keep it in mind."

"Uzumaki, if you dare..." Kiba growled. If possible, Naruto grinned wider.

"Naruto, don't antagonize people you'll be spending the next nine months with. If they kill you, that's just more paperwork."

"Geez, you're already making people mad?" Sakura asked as she walked in with Ino.

"Can't it wait until we've got an open space?" Ino questioned. "I'm more than ready see a fight, but I don't want to be killed because we're in a closed environment."

"I don't mean to interrupt this conversation, but I do believe that the last two people are just now arriving," Dumbledore said, causing all heads to turn towards him. The Shinobi glanced towards the door. Indeed Tenten and Sasuke were walking in casually. Ino and Sakura growled at the pink clothed kunoichi.

"Now that everyone's here," the old man continued, "I should like to tell you just a bit about where you are going. First thing, they speak a completely different language then you do." Someone in the crowd of Shinobi hned. "I have been researching translation spells for the last few weeks and have come up with a version that will have to be cast on something you wear daily. I was thinking your headbands would be a good object for the charm. The charm itself won't damage it in anyway."

The Genin looked over at Tsunade for permission. After all, it was their adulthood that was being charmed. The Hokage didn't even look up. "As long as it's not damaged."

"Excellent! I'll cast the charms right before we leave. Next order of business, the school's system is split into four 'sections.' When we get to where we are going, I will be announcing who is in each 'section.' The two in the Gryffindor 'section' will be the leaders of the mission." He eyed the Shinobi, several of whom were obviously hoping they got into the Gryffindor house. "I'd like to mention, is that Tsunade-sama wants you constantly updated on current events in the Wizarding World. I have put out a subscription for the Daily Prophet for all of you, starting the day school starts. Just a fair bit of warning, much of the stuff published in the newspaper is false. You can trust Harry's friends to lead you on the right path.

"Final thing, there is a secret organization fighting against the man that is possibly targeting your charge, Harry Potter." Dumbledore couldn't shake off the discomfort of telling children this. He sincerely hoped that Harry and his friends didn't find out. "I want at least one of you to attend the meetings each time they come around until the school term starts." He looked at each and every one of their faces, it seemed as though they understood. He smiled warmly.

Dumbledore lifted his right arm and searched around his robe until he found what he needed, a rock and his wand. "First thing's first, I need to cast the charm on your headbands. No need to take them off." They watched curiously as he flicked his wand and a strange light flew out of his wand and was absorbed into the forehead protector. He repeated the action for all eight of them.

"_This spell will allow you to switch in between the languages freely. The only downside is that it may malfunction at various times and you still have an accent. Hopefully spending time around Englishmen will diminish that. I would also suggest you try to learn the language, though it's not necessary_." They nodded.

"_Hey old man, what's with the rock_?" Naruto asked loudly. He quieted. Huh, odd language. Dumbledore smiled knowingly.

"_This is your means of transportation._" They blinked.

"_Uh, Doombredor-san_," Tenten said quietly. "_I don't think that it can fit one of us, let alone all of us." _The old man chuckled. He turned his attention to the rock and muttered a word under his breath. The Shinobi watched in fascination as the rock grew to ten times the size it once was. He muttered something else and the rock glowed for a few seconds before settling down, normal as ever.

"_Now, I would like for you to grab your luggage and hold it tightly. I want you next to touch the rock. It will transport you to the location designated._" They looked at the rock for a moment, but eventually did as told. They waited.

"_Hey, old man, what's the big d–" _Naruto was cut off as he felt a pull behind his belly button.

—

_Language Change_

"Everyone here?" Dumbledore called. He was greeted by 8 different voices, mostly complaining ones. Good, everyone made it. "Now I must assign houses. These houses are the sections I mentioned earlier. Each house has a specific teacher that is the person that watches over everyone. Much like your instructors. Ask your table mates when you get to school who your head of house is."

"In Gryffindor, Uzumaki Naruto."

"YES!"

"Haruno Sakura."

"DOUBLE YES!" Dumbledore smiled at the boys enthusiasm.

"In the Hufflepuff house. Aburame Shino, Yamanaka Ino. Ravenclaw, Tenten and Inuzuka Kiba. Slytherin, Uchiha Sasuke, and Hyuuga Hinata." Sasuke let out a sigh of relief, he wasn't with one of his fangirls! Yes!

"Each house has it's own dormitory and it's separated by year and gender. In the Great Hall, each house has it's own table to sit at. I will expect you to sit at your assigned table during the first feast, after that you can sit wherever you want. The day you are to get your schedules, once you get them, come to me and I will give you more information. Understood?"

"Yes."

"Uh, sir," Sakura said politely. "If I may ask, what year are we being placed in?"

"I apologize, I almost forgot. For you to be closest to Harry, you are being placed in the fifth year. School starts in a week, I would suggest doing some reading before school starts." Dumbledore turned towards the blond haired boy that was assigned Gryffindor. "Naruto, I would like you to try and become friends with Harry in this week. I do not expect him to accept you immediately, so do not feel frustrated if he doesn't open up to you." The boy grinned.

"Don't worry, old man, if I can deal with Sasuke, I can deal with Harry!" The raven-haired boy scowled. Dumbledore faced Sakura.

"Sakura, you might want to try spend time around Hermione, one of Harry's close friends. She loves to read, you can study our world while she's in the library." The girl smiled.

"That's good, I wouldn't want to be one of the only people uneducated about your world." Dumbledore gained his tell-tale twinkle as he finally took in the whole group.

"At school you will have an extra trunk filled to the brim with school supplies. At the moment, I can only provide you with one cloak that you will wear only on the day that you are to be at Platform 9 and 3/4." He paused for a moment. "Now I believe your charge is upstairs. He should be in his room, Molly will guide you there. Now, I would like one of you to come with me to the Order meeting. Tomorrow, I expect you to start your research." Several people groaned. Naruto seriously hoped that Harry was not the studious type.

The Genin looked around at each other, trying to determine who would want to go to the meeting. As cool as a meeting about evil people were...they were certain it'd be made boring somehow. "I'll go!" Ino eventually volunteered.

"Now that's settled, Molly will show you to your rooms." On cue, a plump red-headed lady walked into the room. She scanned the eight and gasped in surprise.

"Dumbledore, are you sure these are the kids you told me about? They look so...young! And they're going in as fifth years!" All eight hned.

"Now Molly, they are more then capable. I'm sure they would like to give a demonstration tomorrow, but for now, show these seven to their rooms. This girl over here is staying for the Order meeting." Dumbledore's eyes fell on Ino. Molly's jaw dropped a little further, but nonetheless she obeyed.

"Follow me kids," she said. The woman turned to leave the room and they followed, obviously interested in a magical home. Several of them jumped in surprise as they saw what decorated the house. Were those portraits...moving? "Your...charge." She bit her lip. "Is just up these stairs." The stairway wasn't anything impressive, it was nothing more then wood and dust.

"Old lady, when was the last time this was cleaned?" Naruto asked. The red-haired woman looked offended for a moment before deciding against it. The language charm must've been defective. Yeah, that's it.

"This house was abandoned for thirteen years before people started living in it again," Mrs. Weasley explained, "We are currently in the process of cleaning it. Unfortunately we haven't managed to get to all of it yet." Naruto stared at the woman.

"What if he has asthma?! All this dust could be deadly! _You could be killing him!" _Naruto accused dramatically. Molly blinked as Sakura sighed.

"Naruto, haven't you paid attention to a word of Hinata's explanation? This place has much more advance medicine then the Five Great Countries. All those diseases that we can't cure, they probably have already medicines for. Not to mention they're _wizards._ Now shut up and let's meet him."

"Uh, meet who exactly?" a voice from the top of the stairway asked nervously. They looked up at the boy who had made it his duty to see these strange people. His red hair lead them to believe that he was related to the woman who lead them here.

"Ah, sorry," Sakura apologized. "Naruto over here was being an idiot." Said boy pouted at his teammate. "May we come up?" She knew that this was unnecessary to say, but it certainly was polite. The boy sent an inquiring look towards his mother before nodding and going back into his room.

"Thank you Weasley-san for taking us here," Tenten thanked considerately before making her way upstairs with the other Shinobi. The red-haired woman smiled and went on her own way.

"So, uh, who are you guys?" the red-headed boy asked as they filed in the surprisingly expanding room.

"We're foreigners coming to learn your arts," Sakura explained. "We're staying here for the next week or so. I hope we aren't a burden."

"That's odd," a girl with bushy hair observed. "This is suppose to be a top secret headquarters, why would anyone allow you here?" Hn, she was a smart one.

"It's to protect foreign relations, plus we learn about the going ons of the Wizarding World. He probably thinks this is the safest place for us. He probably wants our country as an ally or something. I hear he's a powerful man," Sakura said.

She looked over the four in the room. One bed sat a red-haired girl. '_Geez,'_ Sakura thought, '_How many of them are there?_' The next person she spotted was the red haired male from before. She deduced that they were brother and sister (not that it was hard to figure out). Sitting at a table with the book was the bushy haired girl, she must've been a family friend. The final boy was spread about on his bed, his black hair and glasses distinguished him from the other three.

"Dumbledore took you here?" the black-haired male asked quietly.

"Yep, old man Dumbledore!" Naruto said happily. Sakura mentally slapped herself. So much about keeping him quiet. Harry stood up suddenly.

"Is he still here?!"

"W-we're not sure. H-he might've l-left after h-he dropped us o-off," Hinata stuttered. "A-ano, I think we s-should introduce ourselves." The girls looked as if they had been slapped.

"Of course! How rude of us!" The seven quickly introduced themselves and followed it with a short bow. Tenten looked at the four in front of them. "What about you guys?"

"I'm Hermione Granger, and judging by your names, you're from Japan, right? Here we introduce our personal names first and last names after," she explained. Of course, she was Hermione, she knew these things. "You mentioned something about the going-ons of the Wizarding World? Are you not wizards?"

"Nope. We're ninja," Kiba said. "Our leader is sending us to your school in hopes that we get stronger." Suddenly the room's attention was captured.

"Ninja, really?" Ginny questioned. "Like those people you see in muggle movies? You certainly don't seem ninja-ish." She saw a couple of them scowl. In response, she raised her hand apologetically. "I don't mean it like that, it's just...not what we're used to." Their scowls didn't fade; Ginny laughed nervously.

"Our culture is–" Was "–cleverly hidden. Your definition of us is more then likely outdated. Dumbledore-sama has asked us to prove we are indeed who we say we are tomorrow. But for now, the massive time difference has left us restless. If one of you could direct you to the library, it would be appreciated," Shino said.

"I have some books," Hermione said brightly. She couldn't wait to find out more about these people! "Follow me!" Tenten, Shino, Hinata, Sakura and Sasuke followed her out. She just made their searching just a little bit easier.

"Geez, that one talks a lot, doesn't she?" Kiba said with a bored tone. Harry and Ron frowned.

"She may seem like that," Ron started. "But she's the most brilliant witch in Hogwarts. Even if she is a bookworm."

"You shouldn't judge someone like that," Harry added.

"Sorry, sorry."

"So what are your names?" Naruto asked. "We've already told you ours and only Hermione-san has introduced herself." He looked them over carefully, one of them was suppose to be his charge...

"I'm Harry." BINGO. "That's Ginny and this is Ron. Nice to meet you, I suppose." Both boys blinked sleepily.

"Sorry, we had a long day. We had to work on cleaning the house and go to Diagon alley today to get our school supplies," Harry explained. "We were just about to get ready to go to bed when you guys came in."

"Bed?" Naruto questioned. "It's barely morning!" Kiba rolled his eyes.

"Idiot. It's nighttime here. Time difference, remember?" Naruto's mouth formed an o shape. He sighed. Kiba looked over at the newly summoned beds. Akamaru leaped off of Kiba's head and chose his bed for him. The dog barked and he smiled.

"I guess that's where I'm sleeping tomorrow!" he laughed. Inuzuka's luggage appeared beside his bed.

"Hey Naruto, let's go find the others now. I don't want to get lost here." Not that it was very likely, with Kiba's tracking skills, they could find the group fairly easily.

"Okay!"

Ginny, Harry, and Ron stared at the door where the hyperactive ninja and the dog-boy left.

"Those are definitely not ninja."

—

Ino thought listening in on an important meeting about a war would be interesting. She was utterly wrong.

First she was faced with older adults who doubted her and her friends power. Sure she wasn't the strongest Kunoichi in Konoha, but she'd certainly stand up to a wizard any day! Unfortunately a certain greasy haired male kept complaining while the motherly red head gave her worrying glances. It wasn't until she sent a kunai flying to the wall, catching the man's sleeve, (complete with a note on hair products that he could use) he finally shut up.

The entire group was still weary about this twelve year old girl sitting at the end of the table. Of course the leader had told them to continue the meeting as they would usually, but they were still having second thoughts. Dumbledore was the only one who ignored it and told Snape to give his report.

Ino took very good mental notes, simply because the others would kill her if she didn't pay attention at all. Apparently the greasy haired man was a spy for the 'Order' as they called themselves. Quite frankly Ino didn't trust him, he was a bit too mysterious for her own tastes. Where was the proof that he could be trusted?

Well, she supposed these people knew him much better then her, so she shouldn't judge what she didn't know. Maybe there was some cool battle that took place a while back where he gave up and pledged his allegiance as long as he didn't have to wash his hair.

...Oh right, pay attention.

"The Dark Lord also intends to send several Death Eaters to infiltrate the Ministry. It's mostly for information gathering rather then something real dangerous. I fear they may attack once they've got information on as much as possible on the Ministry."

Ino raised her hand lazily. Must've been something she picked up from Shikamaru... "Excuse me, don't mean to interrupt. But who exactly is this Dark Lord?"

All of the adults stared at her. It was then that she noticed the man to her right. How the hell she didn't notice him in the first place was a mystery. What's with that eye...?

'_Holy crap it moves around!_' Ino let out a shriek. The adults just rolled their eyes and he chuckled darkly.

"This is what happens if you're not careful in our world, lady," he said. She shuddered at the voice. Scary people scary people scary people...

"Back on topic," a stern lady said. He obeyed reluctantly, he must've had a thing about freaking out kids. "The Dark Lord, otherwise known as You-Know-Who is a dark wizard who has been trying to kill off all muggle-borns and muggles themselves. He killed hundreds of people before he returned and now that he's back, we worry for our lives." Ino assumed that by muggle, she meant regular people. Civilian sounded better anyway...

Ino raised her eyebrows. All this fuss over one man and his followers? Just how many people were with him...? "And your government is against this?" McGonagall nodded, her face grim. "Well, we're only offering our services for a year, if you intend to keep us here, you better give us a good impression." Ino suppressed a giggle, she sounded so informed! If only Sasuke-kun could see her!

"Don't worry about that," a scruffy looking man said. "I'm sure Hogwarts will leave a good impression." Ino liked him, he didn't raise his voice against her at the meeting. She looked over him, he seemed pretty nice, despite his torn robes. Maybe she could buy some new ones for him. She glanced over at the greasy haired man. Robes and Shampoo...

"Now before I was _rudely _interrupted, I was saying..." the man drawled on. Ino paid closer attention now that she found a quill and parchment on the ground. She wasn't quite sure where it came from, but it was sure as hell convenient. She was too busy writing to notice Dumbledore's twinkle.

The meeting adjourned late at night. Ino frowned at the strange time difference, that was going to take some getting used to...

People filed out of the room and stayed in the hallway for quite sometime. She noticed Kiba and Naruto coming down the stairs.

"Hi guys!" she called. "Apparently I came like, right in the middle of it so I didn't get much info. Where's everyone else?"

"They're in the girls room, they're getting books from someone called Her-my-oni. After that, we plan to study," Kiba yelled over the voices.

"Awh man. That includes me, doesn't it? I have to actually study?!" Naruto whined. He went ignored.

"You're looking for a place to study?" A long haired man asked. Ino looked up at him.

"W-well, we were probably going to do it in the dining room. U-unless you have like, a library o-or something." Damn, he looked intimidating at this angle. Did these people live to scare people?

"This house has a library, would you like me to show you it?"

"L-let's wait for my team members first." More scary men more scary men more scary men...

"I understand." He walked away from the frightened girl and went to talk to the man with the tattered robes. She sighed in relief. Kiba and Naruto hopped the banister.

"Who's that guy?" Naruto asked. Ino shook her head.

"Not sure, I don't know half the people here. But apparently he knows the house very well. Think he might be the owner?"

"Possibly."

"He's a scary owner." Ino shivered, Naruto laughed. In the distance (AKA upstairs) they could hear a door opening and closing. In just a few moment, the rest of the team came down the stairs, tons of books in tow.

"I do think we have enough for research," Tenten said with a light laugh. She stumbled slightly as she made her way down the stairs. Sakura snickered.

"There's also apparently a library here too. I don't think we'll have any problem with research, the problem will be with trying to read it all," Sakura said.

"Hmph, I really don't have to do research, right?" Naruto gave the others a desperate glance. "Right?!"

"N-Naruto-k-kun, I-I think i-it'd b-be best i-if you d-do re-research t-too," Hinata said. "Th-then y-you'd b-be r-ready w-when you g-go to Ho-Hogwarts." Hinata blushed as he looked at her.

"Fine. But it better not be too much!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Too much for you is reading a page. Now where is this library?"

—

As Sirius turned the key and the large doors flew open, they let out a gasp of surprise. The library was huge! Bookshelves were as tall as the ceiling, books filled every shelf and a large stained glass picture gave the entire library life.

The long haired man pointed to the corner of the library where a round table sat, eight chairs surrounding it. "That's all I can do for now. Haven't been here in a while. So I don't know where anything is. Hermione might be able to direct you when she wakes up." He looked over the stacks of books they held. "Though I don't think you're gonna need to go through the shelves. Good luck." And so the man left.

Sakura looked from the bookshelves to the books that the Shinobi were holding.

"...I say we start with these," she said as she pointed to a book that Shino was holding.

"...Agreed."

—

Sasuke was intrigued about this new world. Here things didn't make sense, according to this book, all he had to do was wave a wand and things would happen. Though some seemed pretty useless, like making an object float? What would the point of that be? Though that summoning charm seemed pretty interesting. It would quite useful during kunai and shuriken training. Not only would he get to practice throwing them, he'd be able to practice dodging them. Training would be twice as effective!

The Dark Arts book that the girl had lent him was interesting too. Mostly the creatures that were illustrated inside them. Like that strange creature that showed your worst fear? He certainly wanted to find something like that. It would be the greatest psychological training.

Although pixies appeared useless.

Ohh, another useful spell. One that can unlock locked doors. Interesting... When was he going to get his wand again...?

Sasuke turned the page in his Charms book. A charm to make things sound louder. There was a spell for everything. He paused to think.'...Everything? I wonder if there's a killing charm...?' He continued reading.

Eight hours later, Sasuke was on his fifth book. Naruto had fallen asleep on top of his. The girls were in a discussion about what they had learned and Shino was being Shino. Kiba was practically falling out of his seat from boredom.

It wasn't until Hermione poked her head in that they realized that morning had finally come.

"Is this what you've been doing all night?" Hermione asked. "You must be dedicated researchers!" Naruto began to stir. Sasuke twitched and shifted his position so he faced away from her.

"Eh? Ramen time?" He asked.

"Naruto, get your head out of it's loop!" Sakura cried. "You fell asleep while reading, idiot."

"Oh, whoops. I guess it wasn't just that interesting." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and grinned. Sakura looked over the book title.

"You found a book about the school we're going to boring?" She asked.

"Well, uh... You see Sakura-chan. You know I don't like reading!" She rolled her eyes and fell back onto her seat exasperated.

"Unbelievable."

"Would you all like breakfast?" Hermione asked kindly. "Mrs. Weasley is making some right now. Plus some other students will be there, it'd be nice for you meet potential house mates. Not to mention I'm eager to see this presentation you promised last night!"

"That'd be wonderful, right guys?" They unenthusiastically (minus Naruto who cheered) nodded their heads.

"I'll show you the way," Hermione offered.

"Coming Sasuke-kun?" Ino asked. The boy grudgingly got up and followed the eight out of the room. Hermione led them down several staircases, past awake moving portraits (which were just as creepy as the sleeping ones) and through two long hallways.

"Why do houses have to be this big?" Kiba muttered as he tried to memorize the path from the library to the dining room.

"I have no idea, Kiba, no idea," Naruto mumbled back. The long route finally ended when Hermione walked into double doored room. The eight plus one dog wearily walked in.

"Morning," Tenten greeted.

"Good morning to you too!" the red headed woman from yesterday replied happily. "Eat up, eat up, we're having pancakes!" They each took an empty seat.

"Mum, who are they?" Twins asked in unison.

"These are foreign students that are going to Hogwarts this year," Molly said kindly. "Stay away from them," she added warningly.

"We will Mum," one twin said.

"Don't you have faith in us?" The other added.

"No." Both of them mock pouted. The ninja laughed. The table soon broke out into separate conversations.

"Hey, Harry-kun!" Naruto said. Harry turned his head towards the loud brightly dressed boy. Naruto held up his fork. "What's this?" Harry's jaw dropped and Ron choked on his pancakes.

"You don't know what a _fork_ is?" Ron asked.

"Is it some sort of weapon? It doesn't really look all that sharp or dangerous." Naruto poked the prongs with his finger.

"At least we get free knives with the meal!" Tenten chirped. "Not very aero-dynamical though."

"Oh!" Molly cried. "I'm sorry, I should've realized you don't use our utensils." She looked around the table. "Yes, use them like your dark haired friend over there." She pointed to Sasuke who just rolled his eyes. It wasn't really all that hard to figure out, all he did was look over at the other kids.

"Teme," Naruto muttered under his breath. Nevertheless, he roughly took the two objects and mimicked what Sasuke was doing.

"Hey Hermione-san?" Sakura asked.

"Yes?"

"You know that library pretty well, right?" Hermione nodded. "Can you help my friends and I find books? We hardly know English, let alone what you British wizards study." The bushy haired girl thought it over for a moment.

"One condition. I want you to tell me more about where you're from."

"It's a deal." Hermione smiled widely.

"So Harry-kun, what's there to do here besides reading?" Naruto asked the boy almost desperately.

Harry pondered this while chewing on his pancake. "Well, we've been doing a bit of cleaning round the house. It's not as boring as it sounds," he added quickly at Naruto's look.

Naruto frowned. "I'll take your word for it."

—

"So where's this demonstration you said you were going to do?" Ron asked as soon as the eight finished breakfast. The shinobi looked at one another.

"_Let's do something simple,_" Sasuke said. "_Wall walking seem like a good idea?_"

"_Yeah, we don't want to show them all we know. We'd blow the whole place up."_

"_Wall-walking it is." _The eight faced separate directions and walked casually up to the wall and...kept walking. The magic users stared at the eight Shinobi in a mix of awe and curiosity.

"Is that just a sticking charm placed at your feet?" Hermione inquired. They shook their heads.

"This, Hermione, is a special skill unique to us ninja," Sakura explained. "We have the ability to walk on walls and water at will. However if you don't have the endurance or the energy required for this skill, you'll fall." Sakura turned towards Naruto. "For example, _Naruto cut off your Chakra._" The boy pouted.

"Why me? Why not Kiba, or Sasuke!?"

"Because you'll just jump right back up." The boy scowled and the wizards watched as Naruto fell from the ceiling to the floor. To their surprise, he managed to do a flip just in time and land on his feet. Defying Sakura's prediction, the boy remained standing where he landed.

"What else do you know?" Ginny asked inquisitively. Sakura and the others jumped from the ceiling, landing in the same fashion as Naruto.

"That, you're just gonna have to find out on your own."

—

"This is by far the strangest house cleaning I've ever had to do," Naruto muttered as he jumped out of the way of a random pixie who had taken a liking to his hair. Another one behind him grabbed a yellow tuff and Naruto slashed at it with a kunai.

Harry soon learned that he was very good with knives and not that sympathetic with things playing with his hair.

" You know, we usually we have spells for those kinds of things," Harry mused as he watch Naruto take down another pixie. "It's much more humane."

"You LET those things breed?" Naruto asked astonished. "If it were me, I'd kill them. Useless creatures."

"I think we use their wings in potions," Ron said.

"Oh, that's better then. Torture them." Yet another pixie flew towards him with a malicious aura. "DIE." The pixie was in two pieces in a manner of seconds.

"I think that was the last one." Naruto let out a sigh of relief.

"Please tell me those are the only pixies in this house. I don't think I could stand anymore."

"Err...hopefully in this room those were the last."

"DAMN."

—

"So your headbands are both your language charm and an indicator of which village you are from?" Sakura nodded.

"Yes."

"What type of things do you study? It obviously can't be magic."

"Mostly fighting, we've studied magic all of one night and deemed it very useless in heated combat. Our countries are a very dangerous place."

"Oh." It made sense to Hermione now. He must've thought these people would be able to help them against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and in order to make them allies he asked the leader of one of these villages to give him students. It was perfectly logical.

"Now where are the books we should look at?" Shino asked quietly.

"You're starting at first year, right?"

"Fifth." Hermione blinked in surprise.

"Fifth?"

"Yes, fifth." It was perfectly logical up until this point anyway. Why would Dumbledore allow kids evidently younger then fourteen and fifteen into Hogwarts fifth year when they had never even heard of magic before? There was something else that she wasn't being told...

"Well, on that shelf are transfiguration spells years one through seven, just above it are charms, and the next three shelves above that are defense against the dark arts. On the bottom shelf are potions books. Those are the general classes everyone takes." Hermione pointed to each shelf as she named them. "Just a fair warning, the Black family was prominent in dark arts study, so if you wander away from those shelves, you may be unlucky enough to find a cursed book or too. You should just stick to those, I certainly have."

"Thanks for the advice, Hermione-san."

—

Hermione studied the foreigners with much interest. They were willing to learn and very polite. Most of them anyway. They also appeared to have an air of mystery surrounding them. Their story made sense, but she couldn't help but get a sense of suspicious every time she glanced up at their headbands.

The first one that she was suspicious of was that quiet dark haired, blue wearing boy. He remained quiet during everything. Dinner, lunch, breakfast, study time. She had never heard him speak and even his friends seemed a bit weary of him at times. She resolved to watch him closely.

Her next suspicion was the other dark haired boy with the high collar. Like Sasuke, he never talked. He seemed very observant and intelligent and less...mean. But she couldn't help but get 'vampire' vibes off of him. And what _was _that buzzing noise she heard every time he was near...?

Next was Sakura. She seemed nice enough, intelligent too, just like herself. But intelligent enough to manipulate someone if need be.

Naruto was interesting, to say the least. He seemed a bit detached from his friends, considering all the times that he opted to clean, rather then study. Also, what kind of Japanese citizen had blond hair? Not to mention a ninja. A ninja wearing orange! Weren't they suppose to be stealthy?

The others didn't seem all that dangerous. Tenten, Hinata, and Kiba were probably the most normal out of the entire group. Though Kiba appeared to be very attached to his dog, Hermione really hoped he wouldn't have to part with it by the time school started.

—

A week passed with little event (though at one point Ron, Naruto, and Harry had managed to find some sort of creature that threw various objects with enormous strength towards the three) and before anyone knew it, the day the Hogwarts Express was to leave had arrived.

"So you're telling us to run through a brick wall," Tenten said disbelievingly. Honestly, in a crowded station too!

"Yes, for the last time children, you have to run through the brick wall. No harm will come to you, I guarantee it." They still looked doubtfully at the seemingly solid wall. Was it just them or were ordinary people specifically not looking that way...? Molly sighed. "Everyone else, go on ahead." Harry, at the head of the line, went first into the wall. Naruto's and Sakura's eyes widened as they watched him run into the wall and disappear. They shot her a look that clearly said, 'You did NOT just do that.'

Unluckily for the two, they had to wait for everyone else to go before they could frantically run through searching for their charge. Thankfully he was kind enough to wait at the other end of the barrier.

"Uh, guys. Before we look for a compartment, I think I should tell you that there won't be enough room to fit all you guys. Six to a compartment, you see," Harry said.

"It's alright! Let's go guys!" Naruto cried enthusiastically. As the fire country didn't have such transportation, he and secretly the others, were excited for a new experience. "See you at school!" Hermione and Ginny blinked as they watched the boy run into the train while disturbing several kids who were trying to shuffle themselves on. Ron and Harry just rolled their eyes.

"You'll get used to it, Hermione. You'll get used to it."

—

_Language Switch_

"S-shouldn't Naruto-kun b-be with Harry?" Hinata asked nervously. She sat in between her teammates, directly in front of her sat the other three girls. On the ceiling crouched Sasuke and Naruto (Sasuke said he wished to train a bit since he hadn't done much in a week, Naruto felt challenged and joined him).

"He should, but since he was with Harry and Ron for the entire week, it'd be strange if he decided to isolate himself totally from their friends. He only pulled it off before because he could claim it as refusing to do work," Shino explained. "It's less suspicious if he comes with us for just a few hours."

"I'd feel much safer if we were closer to his compartment though," Sakura said. Akamaru came into the room with a bark.

"We're pretty close to him, it's only about ten compartments down," Kiba informed.

"If you say so..."

"Not to mention we have the Shino, Kiba, and Hinata to tell us whether something's going wrong or not. Plus from what I've read, they are not a master at stealth. They rely on spells to mask themselves but they don't have the light step. Their shoes are loud," Tenten said. Sakura looked convinced and leaned back in her chair satisfied. Slowly the train started moving. Gathering speed quickly, the train left the station in just a few seconds.

"So guys, there anything important you learned while I wasn't doing work?"

"Not much, the book about Hogwarts gave us little information on the current state of it. What we know is that it's warded against people appearing inside of it's walls magically, electronics don't work, and it's also got a ward to prevent non-magic people from entering," Sakura explained. "I also read something about a Forbidden Forest. Sounds like a magical version of the Forest of Death. We may consider training there some time."

"That it?"

"Yes."

"Hmph, sounds boring. And we're going to be here a _year?_"

"I agree with you," Kiba muttered. He stared out the window with Konoha in mind. Suddenly something clicked and a devious smirk filled his face. "Hey, it looks like these windows can be opened. Who wants to go onto the roof?"

"We don't even know how fast the train is moving!" Ino cried.

"I'll do it!"

"You both are idiots!"

And so this went on for an hour. Ino and Sakura would reprimand Kiba and Naruto for even thinking of doing something like that while Hinata and Tenten would occasionally put their opinion in. Shino would remain quiet while Sasuke brooded on the ceiling. When the argument got particularly loud, they were interrupted.

The door to their compartment slide open to reveal a sickly looking boy with slicked blonde hair and two large fellows presumably his henchmen. He examined the occupants with an interested look. They raised an eyebrow at this. Sasuke and Naruto released themselves from the ceiling and landed in front of the boy.

"_What do you want_?" Sasuke asked. The boy looked amused.

"_Foreigners? I don't know what you guys do wherever you're from, but here we like peace and quiet_. _Plus I'm a prefect. We wouldn't want me to –ahem– abuse my powers, now do we?" _

"_Due to where we're from, we have special connections with Dumbledore. Any wrongful punishment you hand to us we can convey to him and therefore make you lose such powers." _Malfoy scowled. Absently Sasuke looked over the prefect badge and the coat of arms on his cloak.

"Oh dammit. This jerk's in _my_ house," Sasuke growled. Naruto laughed.

"_Judging by your badge and coat of arms, you're in the Slytherin house, correct_?" Malfoy looked proud and nodded. "_My friend and I were sorted into that house. Perhaps you could introduce us to some of the students before we get to school." _The boy looked appalled. He threatened a Slytherin! Someone from the greatest house in Hogwarts!

"_Come with me."_

"I figured I had better start associating myself with people from Hogwarts that I'll be spending time with unwillingly," He explained, "Hinata, you should come too. Let's get our stuff."

"_Hai!_" She stood up and nimbly got her trunk and Sasuke's. "S-see y-you guys a-at school!"

"Bye Hinata-chan! Sasuke-kun!" She gave a timid wave back and left.

"You know Ino-chan," Naruto started. She narrowed her eyes. "You two look a lot alike, are you and that blond related...?" She knocked him upside the head.

"Please, Kami-sama, please. Get us to Hogwarts soon!"

—

Sasuke thought sitting with people who he was to take classes with, sleep with, and study with would be a good idea.

He was wrong.

The first thing he was greeted with was 'Drakkies' fangirl who had taken a liking to him too. Konoha fangirls were _nothing _compared to these. At least the ones in Konoha knew that he was armed and dangerous. But the Hogwarts ones didn't know that, so they were ten times more clingy. _Scary._

The next thing he learned about Hogwarts students is that there is always an unappointed leader. For the group he was sitting with had apparently appointed Malfoy, for Kami knows what reason.

Third thing was that they were entirely too biased towards demographic groups. Point and blank, Gryffindors. He could understand rivalries, but certainly not this. To his misfortune, he found out that there were clans in England similar to the clans in the Five Countries that were apparently better then the rest. Down the to point of inbreeding just to keep the blood pure.

Fourth and final thing he learned was that wizards were out of shape and stupid. The stupid part wasn't exactly hard to figure out, neither was the out of shape part. Sasuke was used to people around him being able to run at least 40 miles per hour on a good day. For whatever reason Draco couldn't walk half of the train without panting. He wasn't even carrying anything!

Sasuke dearly hoped that this boy wasn't fifth year.

—

Four hours later, they finally made it. By that time Ino, Tenten, and Sakura were ready to bash their heads into the nearest hard object. Kiba and Naruto finally made it on the roof and it turned out that it was just as good as Kiba had imagined it would be. Unfortunately because of this, they missed the trolley lady and therefore had to go without lunch. But at least they had fun.

When the train started to slow down, they finally put on their school uniform. Following this was a massive teasing fest.

The train had come to a stop at the station and they got off the machine. They had split up into groups of three to find someone from their year and house. Sakura and Naruto easily found Harry and his friends. Ino and Shino found a couple of Hufflepuffs who greeted them with open arms. As for Tenten and Kiba, they were stuck with a group of Slytherins who kept sneering at them.

"Where's pig?" They heard Ron ask Harry.

"Oh, you mean Ino? She's with some Hufflepuffs," Sakura said, "Mind if we ride with you? There's noone else we know."

"I guess so." Just a few moments later, Hermione emerged panting from a group led by the blonde that Sakura and Naruto had met on the train.

"You should tell your friend to hang out with other people," Hermione said. She pointed to Sasuke and Hinata for effect. "Draco was picking on some poor first year. Glad I was there to stop it."

"Why? They're in the same house." Hermione looked at them wide-eyed.

"Even that shy girl? Hinata? _Hinata's a Slytherin?_"

"Bloody hell, the world's gone made," Ron said in the same wide-eyed shock. Harry appeared not to either notice or care. He was absorbed in looking at _something. _Sakura and Naruto looked at it too.

"Hmm, odd creatures," Naruto mused. "But we really should get on the carriage before they fly off without us. Naruto grabbed Harry and Ron by the hand and forcibly dragged them onto the carriage.

"What d'you reckon those things are?" Harry asked Ron as Luna boarded the carriage with Ron's bird in tow.

"Sweet little thing, isn't he?" She said dreamily as she gave the owl to Ron. He muttered something under his breath.

"What things, Harry?" Hermione asked concerned. Harry frowned.

"The things pulling the carriage!" Both of them looked out the window.

"Harry...nothing's pulling them."

"You...you can't see them," Harry said dumbfounded.

"I can see them Harry. Ever since my first year. You're just as sane as I."

"I can see them too!"

"Me too!"

Harry was not reassured.

—

A long carriage ride and a sorting later, Naruto was ready to dig into the feast. All that remained now was the speech. Dumbledore clapped his hands together silently and the hall quieted.

"It is my pleasure to welcome you to another new year. I would also like to welcome back those returning. There is a time for speech making, but it is not now –Tuck in!"

Hordes of food appeared on the tables in that instant. Naruto and Ron eagerly ate everything within their reach. Hermione and Sakura ate in a more dignified manner.

"Hey Ron? When do they serve ramen? I haven't had any in a week and I feel deprived."

"What's ramen?" Ron asked through a mouthful of food. Naruto's face changed from one to innocent curiosity to one of absolute horror. No...ramen? How did they survive?!

"Good," Sakura said. _Good?!_ "Constantly having ramen can't be good for your health. At least here you can try new things. Now eat and don't complain."

"Sakura-channnnn," he whined.

"Eat." He grudgingly obeyed.

One meal and dessert later, the student body was chatting happily. Dumbledore stood once more and the Great Hall silenced once again.

"First matter of business, the Forbidden Forest, as it stands, is still forbidden." He shot a glance to the Weasley twins and Harry who gave him a smile in response. "Filch's list of banned object is ever growing, and can be found in his office.

"Now I would like to welcome eight foreign students to our grounds." The eight genin stood and bowed. "They will be staying here for a year as an experiment to foreign relations. Be sure and welcome them with open arms. I would also like to welcome Professor Umbridge as—"

"_Hem, hem._" Several students gasped. _Dumbledore _was _interrupted? _Madness! Dumbledore himself seemed a bit surprised but hid it well. He sat down as the toad-like woman stood up. She made her long speech and unbeknownst by her, half of the student body was asleep by the time she finished.

"It over?" Ron asked groggily. Hermione rolled her eyes and nodded. "Man, I hope she doesn't give us lectures." Hermione whacked him.

"Of course she's going to give us lectures! Every teacher does. But did you even pay attention to a word she said?" He and Harry shook their heads. "The Ministry's in Hogwarts. What's got in Dumbledore's head to even hire her..."

Dumbledore stood up again and finalized his speech with when Quidditch tryouts would be held. Naruto and Sakura paid little attention and instead listened in on Hermione's and Harry's conversation.

"Oh!" Hermione stood up as the Great Hall started bustling. "First years this way!"

"Oi! Brats, this way!"

"Ron!"

And so the year at Hogwarts began.

**End of Chapter**

—

Portkey - This is probably the thing I see messed up the most in fanfiction. In one of the books, it mentions that portkeys are approved by the Ministry. Seriously, can you imagine what it'd be like if the ministry didn't have any control of what the wizards do? It is illegal to set one up without their knowledge. I know someone's gonna mention this, so I'll say it now. At the end of the fifth book, Dumbledore sets one up without the approval. While it is possible to do this, once again, it's illegal. Fudge even says so.

The Ministry against Dumbledore - Somewhere in the book, Ron says 'Well, Dumbledore's always done his own thing..." I know this is true, but with the Ministry after him, he can't afford being put in jail. So he has to follow them, even if it is just a little bit. Before, most of the Ministry were Dumbledore men, following him. Now that many people have spoken against him, they are getting bolder and together, they realize, they can bring him down. Rejecting his wants is just an example of that.

House Placement - I always see the ninja given a protection mission, and then sorted. It's a bit illogical because you can't be too sure that they'll end up in his house. Anyway, the team setup is completely shot if there's not two shinobi in each house.

House Placement Again - I know it's always done, but where's the fun if Naruto's in Hufflepuff or something like that? But you have no idea how much fun it's going to be with Hinata in Slytherin.

Not telling Harry Naruto's suppose to protect him - This is going to be mentioned in future chapters.

Sirius' House - ...I really don't know if it's suppose to be a mansion or not, but it is now.

Killing Charm - Sasuke really hadn't studied magic enough yet, so he doesn't know it's called a curse.

Hermione Suspicion thing - Alright, this part really wasn't needed, but I have the tendancy to advance the plot really fast, so I need something to slow it down, even just a little bit.

Feast - Did that go too fast? I really hope not.

Okay, I know half of that chapter was filler, but the plot will start advancing chapter three, I promise.


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you all for the reviews. I'm sorry I can't reply to all of them. But thank you all.

Anyway, so one night last weekend, my internet connection dies. I had several options at that point, I chose to write. I am currently on chapter five of this story and it's over 80 pages long. I think I'll keep my updating every two weeks streak though.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Harry Potter.

"Blah" - Talking

"_Blah_" - Foreign Language at the time.

---

**Chapter 3**

Hinata could only flick her pupil-less eyes around nervously as she entered the dungeons. At the moment, she was very uncomfortable. For her, there were too many people around and it was only due to some sort of miracle that she hadn't passed out yet. They kept shooting looks towards her and Sasuke indiscreetly. She truly hated to admit it, but she was glad she was not alone on this mission. Thank goodness for Sasuke!

It's a good thing fangirls couldn't read thoughts. Or Naruto.

Speaking of fangirls, no matter how hard Sasuke tried, he couldn't get them off of him. They were even clinging to his arms like some sort of leech. Hinata was stuck between laughing at the boy or fearing for the girls' lives.

The large group descended further into the dungeon and she felt the air temperature drop five degrees. She shivered and wondered who would want their sleeping quarters to be this cold. A second year noticed her discomfort.

"Don't worry, the common rooms are much warmer. There's a fire constantly burning and it's magically enhanced," the girl explained. Hinata nodded and hoped that they'd reach these common rooms soon.

Hinata almost fell over someone as the boy and girl leading the group suddenly stopped. Draco faced the statue and a hush fell over the Slytherins.

"Blood Ties!" he yelled towards the statue. Hinata observed Sasuke resisting to roll his eyes. She silently agreed, it was a painfully obvious password.

The girl was taken down to the Slytherin common room and the crowd began to go their separate ways. Hinata smiled as she warmed up again. The girl hadn't been lying, it was much warmer down here. She took a step towards the fire and took in her surroundings. Hinata couldn't help but blink at the surroundings. There wasn't a single trace of any color other then black, green, and silver. Even the _fire _was green. She was tempted to Byakugan it, but she resisted. Too many people and even more questions. She could do it later.

"Hey!" Pansy waved. Hinata looked at the girl. "Come over here! We've got some time before we've got to go to bed." Hinata nervously walked over to the girl. To her relief, Sasuke followed. "So tell us about yourself. We didn't properly get to introduce on the train." Probably because she was fawning over Sasuke.

"Uh, I-I'm H-Hinata Hyuuga."

"Sasuke Uchiha." Short and simple, like always.

"What year are you? Why were not sorted with the first years?" Draco asked with his arms crossed.

"We were pre-sorted. We're fifth year," Sasuke replied cooly. Surprise filled Draco's face.

"Fifth year?" Blaise questioned. "You can't be older then twelve."

"W-we are twelve. O-our school s-system is different t-then yours," Hinata explained. They seemed to believe it. This, however, lead to another barrage of questions.

"–Kind of magic do you lear–?"

"–re they Dark Ar–?"

"–n you show u–?"

"–don't believ–!"

"–en do you start scho–?"

"–at are those headban–?" Sasuke rolled his eyes and waited for them to shut up. Sadly, it did take quite awhile before the students realized that they weren't answering any questions.

"We can't tell you anything about our school or we'd be killed." Several Slytherins snickered nervously, the others just hned, obviously not believing him. Hinata praised him.

"W-we should g-get to b-bed," Hinata said, "W-we're st-still not us-used to the t-time dif-difference." Even she could lie sometimes.

"Hinata's right. Night." Sasuke and Hinata stood up against the other Slytherins protesting and left the common room for their respective dorms.

—

_Language Change_

Tenten woke up the next morning feeling cheerful. The Ravenclaw girls were quite polite and the boys were just the same. They, like Hinata and Sasuke, questioned her the previous night, but they didn't make as big of a deal of it as the Slytherins. As a matter of fact, they were quite interested and absorbed everything, rarely asking questions twice.

But now it was time for _training _for the first time in a week! They had decided it on the train, at five AM every morning they would get up, get dressed in their casual clothes, train for an hour and a half, get back, take a shower, get dressed for school, and lastly go to breakfast. Fool proof. At the moment she was jumping out of the Ravenclaw tower with Kiba on the other side doing the same thing.

She landed a little roughly but not enough to break any bones. Kiba, on the other hand, landed in a bush and already had a few scraps. She looked around the grounds, sensing a group of people near another large tower. She darted off in that direction while Kiba convinced his dog to jump.

"You're late," Sasuke said as the kunoichi slowed to a stop. She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

"Eheheh, I kinda forgot where I packed all of my scrolls and such."

"Where's Kiba and Akamaru?" Sakura questioned.

"We're here!" Kiba yelled as he joined the seven, his dog beside him yelping happily.

"We have decided to do several things," Shino explained. "Tonight we plan to find out where everyone's dorms are." He pointed upwards. "This is the entrance to the boys Gryffindor dorms. On the other side of this tower are the girls dorms. We plan to mark the rooms in which Sakura and Naruto are staying in. We are to do that for everyone's house."

Sasuke frowned. "Except for the Slytherins. If you can believe it, our dorms are _under the lake. _And they have _windows._" Six of the Shinobi stared at him. Hinata just nodded. She couldn't forget the fish she had seen when she woke up in the morning.

"We're also going to show each other the entrance to every dorms and the password to get in," Shino added.

"We're doing the marking tomorrow. We're gonna ask Dumbledore-sama today to conjure some paint for us," Sasuke explained.

"We've been without a week of real training, so let's get started. I've got a lot of energy to burn."

"So what do you want to do?" Shino asked. "Sparring or individual training?" They looked at themselves.

"Let's just figure it out as we go on," Tenten said absently. Mentally she sighed, her sparring partner wasn't going to be here for a school year! What on Earth was she going to do? Maybe Hinata was good...? They quickly agreed and split themselves up. Ino asked Sakura to explore the outside castle with her as Naruto asked Sasuke to spar. Both people accepted. Kiba, Hinata, and Shino went off for some team training. Tenten snapped out of her musings to realize she was the only one without a partner or team. She swore quietly and walked off to the Forbidden Forest.

It turned out to be a _perfect _place for training.

Tenten ran deep into the forest where only few beams of sunlight shone through the canopy. Taking a kunai, she marked her target. She smirked as she backed up and threw several varieties of weapons. The fact that the forest was thick was even better. She had to do complex maneuvers to hit the center.

Okay, she didn't have to. But it really was fun.

At least till the centaurs showed up.

"Identify yourself," the leader said with a bow and arrow pointed at her. She stared at the weapon.

"What is the efficiency of that bow and arrow?" She asked, completely disregarding what he had commanded her to do. "It appears to be made from nothing more then some sort of hair, bark, and stone. The bow's not that aero-dynamical. If you want, I could fix it up." The centaurs looked a bit taken back.

"Excuse me?" Tenten realized what she had said and blushed.

"Sorry, enthusiasm," she explained sheepishly. She quickly got a good look at the creatures without appearing rude. She rose an eyebrow, but said nothing about that horse/human...thing. "Oh, whoops! I'm Tenten!"

The centaurs looked at her. "Leave, girl. We do not want you in our forest. We do not want you to mutilate our trees. You do not belong here." She frowned and looked up at the tree canopy. The sun was already getting high, maybe it was best that she left.

"Alright! Sorry about killing a tree. I'll be taking my leave." With that, Tenten left the forest with angry yet pleased centaurs in her wake.

—

Shino, Kiba, and Hinata didn't dare to go far into the forest. They didn't know just how dangerous it was yet, nor did they know what kind of creatures could possibly reside in it. Instead of actual sparring, they really were just using this as an excuse to gather information. Just like their mission demanded.

"I think we should make a list of creatures we meet in the forest," Hinata suggested as she jumped over a three headed frog. She blinked at she watched all three heads croak simultaneously and reveal fangs.

"It's a good idea," Shino said simply. Akamaru barked. "We can document everything we see and make a master list with everyone else."

"I like the idea," Kiba said. "But I don't know what half these things are." He eyed a pair of eyes that was staring at the three with a calculating look. He threw a kunai in that direction and the creature scurried off audibly.

"We should also map out the forest," Shino added thoughtfully. "That way we could know where to avoid and what good places would be for certain needs." The other two agreed much like they had before. Hinata jumped over an unusual substance and was sorely tempted to put it in a test tube and send it to some lab to be tested.

"Geez, they call this the Forbidden Forest," Kiba complained. "The Forest of Death was ten times worse. I've hardly seen anything one could consider dangerous. These trees are also wimpy!" Akamaru barked, as if to say he agreed. Hinata and Shino rolled their eyes.

"Kiba-kun, we've hardly made it into the forest. We don't know how big it is either," Hinata explained, "I wouldn't be surprised if the center of the forest was like the Forest of Death." Kiba huffed. "Not to mention these things are magical and could probably do things that our creatures could do without wasting chakra. They may be more dangerous."

Shino looked at the sun for a moment. "We should head back, it's getting late and we still have to take a shower and dress into our 'robes.'" They nodded and turned around.

By the time everyone had gotten back, it was 7:18, forty-eight minutes since they said they would finish up their training. It wasn't as if they were really going to be late to their classes, those didn't start until nine. But they were pretty sure all the good food would be gone by the time they got down to breakfast. And _noone _wanted to deal with hungry shinobi.

Which just proves how little they knew about school wizards and their waking habits after summer.

"There you guys are!" Ino cried enthusiastically. It was plain as day to see that she was happy to finally be moving. "We've already agreed to eat at the Ravenclaw table today. That's the one with the bird thing on it."

"We should get going. I expect to meet you all in front of the great hall at 7:30," Sasuke said.

Naruto frowned at the order. "Sasuke-teme! I'm the leader of the mission!" Simultaneously a shiver crawled up everyone's back. Apparently the that thought wasn't going to leave them at peace for quite some time. Sakura hit Naruto in the back of his head.

"Everyone, follow Sasuke-kun's orders." They nodded and left for their common room.

"Sakura-channnn," he whined, "That hurt!" She growled.

"It'll hurt more if you don't get moving. Now GO." Naruto caught the threat in the sentence and ran away from her as if she were a S-class Missing-nin.

—

_Language Change_

By the time 7:30 rolled around, everyone was there, just as they were ordered. One in particular sporting a few bruises.

"Sakuraaa-channn, did you really have to hit me so hard?" Naruto complained. Said kunoichi growled at him and he winced.

"Honestly Naruto, I have no idea how you can be so annoying in the morning. Don't you have an on or off button?" Sakura said with a sigh.

"If he had one, it'd probably be broken by now," Kiba muttered. Naruto pouted and the other Shinobi laughed. They eight entered the Great Hall and stared. It was so empty!

"Sasuke-teme! You made us rush for nothing!"

"Dobe," he replied simply as he took a seat at the end of the Ravenclaw table. He grabbed a nearby muffin.

"Where is everyone?" Sakura questioned as she took a seat next to Kiba and Tenten.

"It seems you arrived a bit early," an amused voice said from behind them. They turned to look at the source.

"Hi Dumbledore-sama!" Ino and Tenten greeted cheerfully. The others just lazily acknowledged him. They were more eager to dig into the food.

"I assume you haven't forgotten your meeting with me once you get your schedules, correct?" They nodded. "Good, good. If you're waiting for students, then you should know that the alarms don't go off until eight. They'll start getting down here about five minutes after that." He smiled warmly at them. "I'll be off now." The eccentric man walked elegantly down towards the staff table.

"That man is so strange," Kiba commented loudly. The earned a chuckle from several of the people present. The boy stabbed a pancake with his fork and ate in peaceful silence.

For a little while at least.

"Hey where do we get our schedules?" Naruto asked.

"You get them at your house's head. For you and Sakura, that's McGonagall," Ino said. Naruto continued to look confused. she sighed. "She's the one in the emerald robes and the one that's sitting next to Dumbledore."

"How do you know this?"

"I asked my house mates."

"Oh. Okay! Oi! Sakura-chan! Let's go see what classes we have!" She grudgingly got up and followed the hyper ninja.

—

"So, old man, what is it you wanted to tell us?" Kiba said as he leaned against the staff table. Akamaru barked. Dumbledore smiled at the puppy.

"Well, I've been in contact with Tsunade-sama and she gave me a time for your teachers to come. She told me that Hatake Kakashi and Yuuhi Kurenai are coming for sure. Tsunade-sama is currently debating sending either Maito Gai and his team or Sarutobi Asuma and his team." Tenten and Ino's eyes lit up hopefully. "She may just send both. They are coming in exactly three weeks. You are not expected to attend class that day. Now I want to tell me what you learned during your stay at the Black Mansion."

They proceeded to inform Dumbledore of every single detail they had learned. Naruto played close attention so he could get some facts that he didn't have time to get on the train. They went over modern history, classes, and even what was in the Daily Prophet that week. Dumbledore nodded in approval at the information they were giving him.

"That's good, I don't have to explain as much as I thought I would. I trust you've found your school supplies in the trunks by your beds?" They nodded. "Good, good. Now are there any questions?"

"We spent the last week reading about spells, charms and such, but we didn't find a mention of magical theory. Is there going to be any classes on it?" Sakura asked. Dumbledore shook his head.

"Magical theory is rarely studied. This school once had a class on it, but it was too confusing for some students, so attendance continued to drop until not even the teacher wanted to continue teaching. I'm certain if you go to the library, you'll find some books on the shelves about it. However, it's rare that it's ever studied in depth, so you'll just be stuck with the basics." The Headmaster's eyes twinkled. "However, if you wished to do an in depth study on your own, I would have no objections."

Sakura looked back at her comrades, only a few of them seem interested. She would probably have to use _persuasive_ methods. "Alright. Thank you."

Dumbledore looked thoughtfully towards his watch. "Ah, I do believe classes start in twenty minutes. I assume you have your schedules already?" He looked at the parchment each one of them held. "Good, good. Now off with you! And if you ever need to talk to me, just ask one of the teachers." Each one of them left, feeling like they were forgetting something.

—

"You're sitting on the wrong side," a snide blond sneered at him. Naruto looked at the male Ino in confusion. Sitting to the left of him was Sasuke.

"What'd you mean?" Naruto asked. There were sides for the Gryffindors and Slytherins? He was currently sitting in potions with his second-hand cauldron resting on the burner directly in front of Naruto.

"Gryffindors to the left, Slytherins to the right. Everyone knows that."

"Ohh!" Naruto said as he comprehended. "I get it. Sasuke-teme, trade seats with me." Sasuke could hardly hide his snicker as he switched seats with Naruto. The poor male-Ino apparently didn't know that the blond was basically an idiot. Fortunately Draco was interrupted by the arrival of the teacher.

"Settle down," the man said cooly. There wasn't really a need to say this, apparently this man scared everyone so shitless that they shut up the moment he walked in. The man went on to explain to the class that they would be taking some important exam. When he finished that explanation, he set them onto making a potion called the 'Draught of Peace.'

They class went to work immediately. Sasuke and Naruto chose to work together, despite working on two separate potions. Sasuke would get the ingredients (he was the only one that knew them) and Naruto would turn the burners onto a specific temperature and add ingredients that he understood (like water). Hinata and Sakura imitated the two and did the same thing.

In the end, all four Shinobi had a perfect potion in their caldron.

Snape was not too happy.

"Mr. Uzumaki." Naruto made a face. Mr. Uzumaki! How degrading! "You are aware that cheating is against the rules." Huh, cheating? "10 points from Gryffindor."

"Cheating? It was teamwork!" Naruto exclaimed. Several Gryffindors shook their heads and really hoped that their points counter wouldn't drop into the negatives. Sasuke leaned forward so his elbows were on the table, he watched the spectacle.

"Teamwork? From what I saw, Mr. Uchiha was doing all the work." Damn it, Sasuke was dragged into it.

"That's not entirely true, Snape-sensei. We helped out on each other's potions mutually. If that counts as cheating, then I was cheating too." Snape pursed his lips. He couldn't take points from his own house, that'd ruin his reputation! But a Slytherin boy had admitted to helping another student. He had to do something!

"Just don't do it again." The entire class was paying full attention now. Most had finished their potions when Snape wasn't looking. Even Neville had managed to fix his creation with a little help from Hermione.

"With all do respect, sir, where we are from, teamwork is the most important thing we learn," Sakura threw in. He glanced at her.

"Well, we're not there, now are we Ms. Haruno? From now on I expect you to work on your potions individually. Ten points from Gryffindor for questioning a teacher." Sakura scowled, she may not know what the points were for, but she did know that it was clearly something bad. Any further protesting from the Shinobi was lost. In that short class period, they had learned not to antagonize teachers.

—

Kiba was confused. No, to say he was confused was like saying Ino wasn't loud. He was totally and utterly bewildered. He had come for a herbology lesson and for whatever reason, the plant in front of him was sweating. It was sweating _pus. _

What. The. Hell.

"Psst, Shino," The Inuzuka whispered. The bug-user barely glanced his way.

"What is it?"

"What are these? And what the hell are we suppose to do with them?" Shino sighed. He could only wish his teammate learned to pay better attention to directions.

"You are to cut the leaves from this point." He touched the place where the stem meet the leaf. "Once you've removed the plant from any leaves it may have, you put them in the tub that is by the teacher. Then you take the plant to the back of the greenhouse." Kiba wrinkled his nose.

"I don't want to get my hands all pus covered!" Shino almost ran his head into the table, but since he's Shino, he resisted.

"That's why you have gloves." Kiba looked at his uncovered hands and grinned sheepishly.

"Hey, Shino..."

"There are spares by the door." The dog owner looked at the aforementioned place.

"Oh, thanks!" The boy walked over to the glove box and was disgusted by what he saw. Gloves of every size lined the box, but that's not what creeped him out. Most of them were covered in sickly pus and less then appealing liquids.

Not to mentioned it _smelled. _

Suppressing a shudder, Kiba tentatively reached into the box and grasped the cleanest pair he could find. He slipped them on with some difficultly. Apparently one of the liquids was sticky. Super sticky. From the corner of his eye, he could see the professor stifling a smirk.

The stupid witch must've done it on purpose! Apparently those Hufflepuffs were more dangerous then he thought.

A mutilated plant later, Kiba discovered that Herbology was certainly not his thing.

—

"You managed to ruin a perfectly easy assignment," Ino stated disbelievingly. Kiba scowled.

"It's harder then it looks!"

"NO IT'S NOT." Kiba scowled and diverted his attention to the paper in his hands.

"Looks like I've got Muggle Studies next. What do you have?"

"Ancient Runes, sounds dull. Hey Kiba?" The dog-boy looked up.

"Yeah?"

"What the hell are runes?"

"I think they're seals," Tenten piped in. Apparently she couldn't keep quiet for too long. "Which is strange because they don't teach ninjutsu here. Maybe a really old form of kinjutsu?"

"You do realize that the theory you just suggested makes no sense, correct?" Shino said.

"Yep!" the weapons master chirped.

"Let's just find our classes in this stupid castle," Kiba muttered. "I have no idea how I'm going to find anything!"

—

Eventually all ninja found their way to class without causing damage to the castle. Though several paintings oddly enough started running away whenever they saw anyone that looked like some of the Shinobi.

—

"So now it's defense against the dark arts with that pink lady?" Naruto asked Sakura. The girl nodded. "Who's it with?" Sakura glanced down at the schedule she held.

"Ravenclaws."

"So we're with Kiba and Tenten, sweet!"

Unnoticed by either of the two, Hermione narrowed her eyes. Didn't it seem a bit suspicious that there were eight foreign students? And there were two per house? Even with one boy and one girl?

There was definitely something going on.

She was going to find out.

...As soon as class was over.

Hermione leaned back against her seat as she waited in the grotesquely colored room. Her book sat in front of her and her wand was tucked neatly in one of her pockets. Next to her sat a random Ravenclaw girl. The table next to her unfortunately seated Kiba and Naruto. The class troublemakers.

She could feel the two hours of annoyance already coming.

As the teacher walked into the room and ordered the wands away, she felt the aggravation coming and coming... The teacher then proceeded to explain to them about what they would do in her class. Hn, book work, book work, and more book work. Well, there was one serious flaw. Hermione raised her hand without hesitation.

"I've got a query about your course aims."

Umbridge looked over at the girl that was interrupting her class. "And your name is...?"

"Hermione Granger, ma'am."

"Well Miss Granger, I think the course aims are perfectly clear if you read them through carefully," Umbridge said in her sweetest voice. Hermione nearly gagged.

"Well, I don't. There's nothing written about using defensive spells." The scratching of notes stopped at this. Students read over the three course aims that were written. The teacher had the nerve to laugh at this.

"Using defensive spells? Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class." It was time for the Shinobi to frown. So unprepared!

"We're not using magic?" Ron asked quite loudly.

"Students need to raise their hand to speak, Mr...?"

"Weasley." The teacher's smile widened. Hermione deduced that she was taking names down for future reference. Most of the class raised their hands at this moment. Hermione was interested to note that the Shinobi didn't do any of this, instead they seemed to be observing the classroom. Umbridge's eyes landed on her again.

"Yes Miss Granger?"

"Surely the whole point of Defense Against the Dark Arts is to practice defensive spells?"

"Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert, Miss Granger?"

"No, but–"

"Well then, I'm afraid you are not qualified to decide what the 'whole point' of any class is. Wizards much older and cleverer than you have devised our new program of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure risk-free way–" Several of the Shinobi's eyes narrowed and their fists clenched. They kept quiet. Harry interrupted.

"What is the use of that? If we're going to be attacked it won't be in a risk-fr–"

"_Hand, _Mr. Potter." Harry rose his hand mockingly. Instead she ignored him and opted to turn towards another student.

"Dean Tomas," the boy answered before the teacher could say a thing.

"Well, Mr. Tomas?"

"It's like Harry said. If we're going to be attacked, it won't be risk-free–"

"I repeat," said Professor Umbridge sweetly. "Do you expect to be attacked during my class?

"Now, I do not wish to criticize the way things have been run in this school. But you have been exposed to some very irresponsible wizards in this class, very irresponsible indeed — not to mention, extremely dangerous half-breeds." Students seemed to growl at the last part of the sentence. "You have been introduced to spells that have been complex, inappropriate to your age group and potentially lethal. You have been frighted into believing that you are likely to meet Dark attacks every other day."

"No we haven't," Hermione interrupted. "We just."

"_Your hand is not up, Miss Granger." _Hermione's hand rose.

"It is my understanding that my predecessor not only preformed illegal curses in front of you and preformed them _on you._ It is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is all about. And your name is?" She smiled at the girl called Parvati.

"Parvati Patil, and isn't there a practical bit in our Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.? Aren't we suppose to show that we can actually do the countercurses and things?"

"As long as you have studied the theory hard enough, there is no reason why you should not be able to perform the spells under carefully controlled examination conditions."

"Are you telling us that the first time we'll get to do the spells will the during our exam?"

"I repeat, if you've studied the theory..." Sakura looked at her book and frowned. This was not the kind of magical theory she expected. This was nothing more then spells and how to preform them.

"What good will theory going to be in the real world?"

"This is school, Mr. Potter, not the real world."

"So we're not suppose to be prepared for what's waiting out there?"

"There is nothing waiting out there."

"Oh yeah?" Hermione stared at Harry, hoping her silent pleading got through. His temper was getting out of control.

"Who do you imagine wants to attack children like yourselves?"

"Hmm, let's think," the sarcasm was dripping off his voice. "Maybe, _Lord Voldemort_?" The Shinobi's full attention was on him now. The rest of the class, didn't seem to take too kindly to his statement though. Several people screamed and one person fell off of their chair.

Umbridge was not fazed. "Ten points from Gryffindor, Potter. Now let me make things quite plain. You have been told that a certain Dark Wizard has returned from the dead—"

"He wasn't dead, but yeah, he's returned."

Umbridge glared at him, sending a message that he should shut up before he made matters worse. "As I was saying, you have been informed that a certain dark wizards is at large once again. _This is a lie._"

"It is NOT a lie! I saw him, I fought him!" Naruto and Sakura shared meaningful glances. They weren't told of this...

"Detention, Mr. Potter! Tomorrow evening. Five o'clock. My office. I repeat, _this is a lie._ The Ministry of Magic guarantees that you are not in danger from any Dark Wizard. If someone is alarming you with fibs about reborn Dark wizards, I would like to hear about it. I am here to help. I am your friend. And now, you will kindly continue your reading. page five, 'Basics for Beginners.'" Harry stood up and Naruto pounded his head into the desk once. Why was his charge an idiot? Even he knew that the boy should just suck his pride up and do as the teacher said.

"So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord, did he?" Naruto looked up, so he saw someone die?

"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident."

"It was murder. Voldemort killed him and you know it." His voice was shaking now, this was not something he wanted to talk about. The class's full concentration was on him now. Sakura deduced that he had not talked about this at all. Unfortunately–for the class– he was sent off to McGonagall. Naruto sighed and knew what he had to do.

"You and your Ministry are total idiots," he said breathlessly. The already interested class turned towards him. "Even if it's not common. It's not impossible for a serious criminal to disappear and reappear years later." Kiba, Tenten, and Sakura stared, such seriousness! "Unless you have his head hanging on your wall somewhere in your Ministry, then he's still out there."

Umbridge scowled. "Mr. Uzumaki, detention, same time. Now _get to work and drop the subject._" Naruto leaned back in his chair while faking anger to keep his image up. The class reluctantly got to work. About thirty minutes later, the bell rang and students emptied the classroom.

—

News traveled quickly. Very quickly. People began to talk and very little of it was good. Rumors were spread and Harry was very angsty. Very very angsty. His friends could only wait patiently as the boy fumed.

And fumed.

And fumed.

As they entered the nearly empty common room, they sat down and listened to Harry's ranting. When he finally calmed, Hermione took the opportunity to speak.

"What I don't understand is how Dumbledore can let that terrible woman teach. I mean, I doubt he would let someone from the Ministry in willingly. Surely he knows a lot of people! One of them could've become the teacher instead," Hermione pondered aloud. Ron and Harry listened intently, both of them knew what was coming next must be important. "What if...What if he was forced to take her in?"

"You don't think the Ministry's forcing Dumbledore to do their bidding...right?" Ron asked with his eyebrows scrunched together. Hermione leaned forward in her chair.

"Isn't it strange, eight foreign students come in the same year the Ministry's coming to the school? There are exactly eight of them, two per house. One boy and one girl too. They claim to be from Japan, and yet the only thing Japanese about them is their habits and ability to speak the language. Both of which can be learned.

"They also claim to be ninja, yet have we ever heard of ninja society? If you two paid attention to History of Magic, you'd know that the last ninja died over 2,000 years ago. If they really existed, we'd know. As young as they may appear, I think they are spies for the Ministry under the command of Umbridge." Harry and Ron stared at her with their mouths hanging open stupidly.

"But Hermione, they're only twelve," Ron said slowly.

"You don't think there are potions to make a person appear younger then they are? They must've taken too much when they were sent to the Order's Headquarters. That also brings up another point, why are twelve year olds in _fifth _year? Special education or not, they should probably be in a lower level. They claimed to not know a thing of European magic too."

Harry's face was scrunched up in thought. "But what about the display of ninja arts they showed us?"

"Easily done through a finely controlled spell."

"Wouldn't Dumbledore do research on people he's letting into his school?" Hermione appeared thoughtful for a moment.

"It's set up. I'd bet that the Ministry created profiles of seemingly good foreign students and 'misplaced it' in exactly the right place."

"Well, it's great that we know this now, but what are we suppose to do about it? It's not like we can just go up to them and tell them our suspicious. We can't turn to a teacher either." Ron gave Harry a meaningful glance. Hermione scowled.

"I'll...think of something. Just give me some time."

—

"This is the Gryffindor Common Room!" Naruto announced loudly to his friends. After dinner, they had all gone to explore the castle. On the way they had found the entrances to each house's common room. Even if the Slytherin's were angry at Sasuke and Hinata, it really was amusing when they walked in. _On the ceiling. _

As a matter of fact, they quickly learned that ceiling walking was an efficient way to gather information. Silly wizards didn't bother to look up when exchanging secrets.

At the moment, they were entering the Gryffindor's Common Room and the reaction was shockingly similar to the Slytherins. The students looked around the room for the source of the voice.

"Up there!" a random third year cried. All heads turned towards the ceiling. Stage two, shock.

"How'd you get up there!?" a fourth year yelled. Stage three, outrage.

"Is that...a Slytherin in our common room?!"

"It is!" Quickly Naruto found out why Sasuke nearly fell off the ceiling. He must've been trying so hard to keep in his laughter. It's a shame he didn't have the same kind of control Sasuke had.

CRASH!

By the time he had stopped laughing, he was faced with a group of angry Gryffindors.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. But these dorms are hidden for a reason. By letting other houses in here, you're breaking the rules," Hermione explained calmly. Naruto snickered.

"For being rivals, you Gryffindors and Slytherins are really similar. Sasuke got lectured almost exactly the same way. Only his was more like, 'Sasuke you idiot! Get the damned Gryffindor out of this room! I'll give you detention!'" Hermione and the other Gryffindors just stared at him. "At least the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws didn't mind."

"Did...did you just compare us to _Slytherins?_"

"THEY DID THAT TOO!" Naruto took their shock as an opportunity to jump to safety.

"How can you do that?" a random Gryffindor asked. For whatever reason, he wasn't too fazed by the Slytherin/Gryffindor comparisons. Naruto grinned.

"Ninja arts!" The common room was silent.

"Ninja...arts? You guys are ninjas?" Sakura frowned.

"Didn't Dumbledore tell them?"

"...No he didn't. Damn, now we have to explain."

"Yes, we're ninja," Ino said. "We are taught many different abilities in our village and this is one of them." She smiled devilishly. "We also carry weapons around at all times, meaning you piss us off, one well aimed kunai later and you're six feet under." Many of the students visibly paled.

"Ino, stop scaring them!" Tenten scolded. Ino scowled.

"Thanks a lot, Ino. Can't you just see their heads fill with questions? I'm not getting sleep tonight." Naruto scowled. "Tomorrow I'm announcing to your house that we're ninja. Tell me how it feels."

"As much as I would love to see the end of this fight. Curfew's almost up and I don't want to get detention like Naruto." Time practically froze for the Shinobi at that moment.

"Dobe, you managed to get detention on the first day?" The orange ninja winced. Damn, he was trying to avoid this.

"_It was for the mission!_"

"_Hn, as if. I'll admit, that has to be some sort of record._"

"_It is!_" Ino chirped. "_Usually it takes at least a week. Or at least in the academy it did._"

"_Guyysss, can we move on? Should we wake up the same time tomorrow?_"

"_Fine. Same place. Night._" The Shinobi scattered for their dorms, and hopefully not get caught in the process.

"Hey Sakura-chan?"

"Yeah?"

"The girls dorms are warded against boys, right?"

"...Yeah...?" Naruto gave her an ominous grin.

"Think I could get in like this?"

"YOU PERVERT!"

Day one at Hogwarts finally came to a close.

**End of Chapter**

—

Ah, I tried to keep it shorter, I swear. It just kinda...expanded. But eighteen pages is indeed a bit shorter...right?

**Explanation of Things**

Everyone ignore the fact that I totally screwed up their schedules. It wasn't until I had finished the DADA scene that I realized I had left out History of Magic.

Umbridge Scene - That is almost copied word for word. But really, after a lesson with Snape, can't you imagine them being a bit hesitant go against a teacher? A teacher that has more power, no less.

And that's all I really have to say. I think the chapter speaks for itself.


	4. Chapter 4

Haha, whoops. But I got the chapter out and that's all that matters.

And I give up trying to type short chapters. I tried to make this 15 pages, it eventually went to 20. Ah well.

"Blah" - talking in whatever language is dominate.

"_Blah_" - Whatever language is foreign at the time. Or emphasis. I trust you to know the difference.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter.

_**Chapter 4**_

Kabuto swore loudly as the Sound Four rallied their report to him. They were suppose to have come back with Sasuke, complete with a level two cursed seal. The only problem, Sasuke and his team were nowhere to be found. According to the Sound Four's questionable sources, the boy was on some sort of long term mission to, of all places, _the unexplored continent_. Kabuto's swearing died down as the four left him alone in the room. Reluctantly he took the folder with the mission report and made his way down to Orochimaru's quarters.

Why, oh why was it him who had to tell Orochimaru about how the mission went?!

He really hoped his will was on file with the Sound.

With much nervousness, the medic-nin walked into the room as calmly as possible. Orochimaru's eyes followed his progress until he finally spoke.

"Where is he?" the snake-sannin demanded.

"There's...a problem."

"What. Problem?" Orochimaru hissed with much malice.

"It seems that his team has gone on a long-term mission. According to the Four, they're on the mysterious continent that appeared only a few days ago. The Four checked around and in the Fire country to confirm that it wasn't some sort of stupid, and he's certainly not anywhere near Konoha." Orochimaru's glared at the medic. "It seems that their Jounin instructor isn't with them either."

"Then _why _is it so hard to find him? Surely they are not skilled enough to travel on their own."

"As hard as it may be to believe, but the rumor may be true."

"Impossible," the man growled. "That at the very least is an S-rank mission. Why would Tsunade be so careless as to send genin? It's unlike her." Kabuto nodded.

"Orochimaru-sama, I've estimated it and we have about a month or two before it's impossible to convince Sasuke to come to you," Kabuto admitted reluctantly. Orochimaru's glare intensified.

"Kabuto-san, send the Sound Four out again. I want him found at all costs." Orochimaru stood up weakly. Kabuto rushed over to help him.

"Orochimaru-sama! Sit down, it's not okay for you to move around like this! You just switched your bodies, you need at least another day of rest!"

"Kabuto," he growled. "Let go of me. Finding Sasuke-kun is top priority. Even if it means risking myself."

"Orochimaru-sama, listen to reason! Even if you do go out there, who's to say you won't get killed? Who knows what's out there?"

"Sasuke-kun's out there. We NEED to find him. He is my only chance at obtaining the Sharingan." Kabuto let go of his master and sighed.

"When should we start searching?"

—

"So where are we gonna get the paint?"

"I seriously can't believe we forgot about that."

"We could always blame Naruto. He is the main leader of this mission."

"HEY!"

"Why don't we just use our own blood?"

"It'll wash off, idiot."

"I have a better idea, why don't we scale the castle looking for a teacher to give us some paint." They looked up.

"Up the towering, unstable, ancient castle which may or may not have lots of wind and moisture high up? Where if we fall, we're dead?"

"Of course!"

"Let's do it!"

"Should we separate or should we stay together?"

"I say we stay together, running as a group is always fun!" Everyone stared at her. "...Alright, I've been hanging around Gai-sensei too much."

"So which tower should we scale?" One of the Shinobi looked over the castle.

"I say we go for the one in the center."

"The tallest one?"

"Yeah!"

"Let's do it!"

—

About an hour later, they were in the Great Hall discussing what had happened during their short training.

"I can't believe we didn't even get the paint," Ino said exasperated. "After all that!"

Indeed the quest to mark the towers was a very adventurous one. It involved a falling ninja, Kage Bunshin, a crazy teacher, an angry puppy, and several hundred bugs.

It doesn't take a genius to realize that it'd be best not to know.

"I can't believe I managed to slip!" Kiba exclaimed.

"It's okay Kiba, we don't think of you any less then we already do."

"Gee, thanks."

"Where'd you slip, Kiba?" Hermione asked.

"The Divination Tower," he admitted shamefully. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Why were you up there this morning? Anyway, the Divination teacher's a quack, if you were there for readings, I wouldn't trust her."

"Readings?" Naruto asked, "We were there for training!" Huh? Now Hermione was confused.

"What do...you...mean?" Realization dawned on the girl. Her eyes widened considerably. "What?! How did you manage to survive? No no, why aren't you in the hospital wing right now!? That must be a 60 foot drop at least!"

"Sixty?" Ino laughed. "That was at least two hundred feet. Anyway, he's not dead, so no worries." Hermione panicked even further.

"You were outside?! That's even worse! I'm going to have to tell Dumbledore about this, ninja or not you should not be doing such dangerous things!" Kiba scowled and Akamaru barked.

"It's not my fault, the tower was wet and it was windy up there!"

"So how come we managed to stay on?" Tenten asked.

"You weren't carrying Akamaru!" This did it for Hermione. Nearly killing yourself was one thing, but bringing a poor defenseless puppy was just as bad as using house elves!

"YOU BROUGHT A PUPPY UP A TWO HUNDRED FOOT TOWER?!" Every person in the Great Hall jumped at the sound of her voice. The people right next to Hermione would later suffer from hearing problems later in life. The teachers at the table at the front of the great hall whipped out their wands, only to replace them a few seconds later with a sheepish look on their faces. McGonagall and Dumbledore stood up and made their way to the table at which Hermione sat.

"So much for keeping that a secret," Naruto muttered. Akamaru growled at the girl.

"Hermione-chan, Akamaru says he doesn't mind. It'd be worse if he were separated from me anyway." Hermione scoffed.

"No human can speak to dogs."

"No human may be able to, but we're ninja!" Sakura, Ino, and Tenten simultaneously rolled their eyes. Way to make them sound like another species. "My clan specializes in nin-dogs. When we are young, we sign a contract that allows us to communicate with dogs. I'm not alone either, Shino can talk to bugs! I'm also willing to bet Ino can talk to flowers!" Sakura, Hinata and Naruto laughed. Ino frowned.

"Stop giving away our secrets, idiot," Ino scolded.

"So you can talk to flowers?"

"No!"

"Pigs?" Sakura laughed even harder.

"Hell no! I was talking about telling her all about our clans.

"But it's general knowledge!"

From behind them, a stern voice spoke, "Is there a problem here?" Kiba turned away from the argument with Ino and focused his attention on the teacher and headmaster. Hn, they certainly took awhile.

"No, McGonagall-sensei, everything is fine," Tenten assured.

"Then what was this about a puppy and a two hundred foot tower?" She crossed her arms. "As a teacher of this school, I will not tolerate animal abuse." Kiba at this point was getting nervous. What if she took away Akamaru!? He technically wasn't suppose to have the puppy anyway!

"It's not animal abuse! Akamaru enjoyed it! The falling was just excitement!" Behind McGonagall, Kiba could see Naruto and Ino trying to contain their laughter. He glared their direction and hoped they got the message. Apparently not. McGonagall looked about ready to yell at the boy, but Dumbledore laid a hand on her shoulder and she backed down.

"Now Kiba, can you explain the situation to us?"

"_Geez! It was just training! Why is everyone making such a big deal out of it!? We've done far more dangerous. Has anyone ever told you about the forest of death?!"_

"_Calm down."_ Dumbledore switched languages. "You are dismissed Minerva. The situation is being handled." The teacher scoffed, but left Dumbledore and the shinobi alone all the same. The professor turned back towards the ninja. "_I'm glad you are following your leaders orders, and I cannot stop your training, but if you can help it, don't try such dangerous acts. If you must, do not make such a scene of it._"

"_We're sorry,_" Sakura said. "_It won't happen again._" She bowed her head. _"But now that you're here. There's something we need..."_

—

"It was a complete waste of time," Kiba murmured angrily. "We went through all that and we aren't allowed to paint the castle! Is it just me, or is this not fair at all?"

"Well, think of the bright side, we got to see you screw up!"

"You're never gonna let me live that down, are you?"

"Of course not!" Tenten chirped.

"G-guys, c-class is sta-starting," Hinata whispered. The four Shinobi at the back of their classroom turned their attention to the short teacher that was starting some sort of lecture.

"O.W.L.S?" Tenten whispered to Kiba. The boy shrugged.

"From what I've heard from the other teachers, it's some sort of test. Probably just a written test," Sasuke muttered.

"No no, I heard from Herbology that some of it is actually practical examinations. I bet it's like the Genin Exam. Though I also heard that it helps determine a wizards career, not quite sure why we are taking it, considering we already have a job and aren't staying here longer then a year." At the front of the classroom, the short teacher had finished his lecture and now students were starting a review.

After a few minutes, Sasuke figured out what they were practicing with hidden glee. "They're doing a summoning charm. I think we're suppose to summon the pillow in front of us." Kiba frowned, obviously having planned sleeping on it. "We have to wave our wands and say the word, Accio." Each one of them looked at the stick doubtfully.

Sasuke was first to attempt magic. He waved his wand in an unplanned way and muttered the word with as little of an accent he could muster. The pillow didn't even move. The Uchiha scowled and tried again. Once again, no results.

"Maybe you have to move the stick in a certain way, like the other students," Tenten suggested. She studied one of the students for a moment and mimicked his wand movement. When she muttered Accio, the pillow came flying at her face. Sadly, she didn't dodge it. "Kiba, you say a word, and I will personally make sure there's no less then fifteen kunai sticking out of your ass." The Inuzuka subconsciously scooted away from the weapons master.

Sasuke glared at the girl for getting the spell mastered before him, but followed her advice either way. Just a few minutes later, the three other Shinobi had pillows in their faces.

"So tomorrow, who wants to use this spell with kunai and shuriken?" Tenten asked grinning.

"I just hope it doesn't aim at the face all the time," Sasuke muttered as he pulled the pillow off his face for the third time.

"What's wrong, Uchiha? Afraid your face will be scarred and ugly?" Said Uchiha frowned.

"No matter how scarred and blemished my face will become, Inuzuka. It will never be as ugly as yours." All three ninja froze. Did _the_ stoic Uchiha just make...a joke? As Hinata burst out into giggles, Tenten began to howl in laughter.

"Geez, is today 'Insult Kiba Day?'" As Tenten began to pound her desk, Kiba glared at her. "Apparently it is."

"He's got you beat there, Kiba," Tenten snickered. Kiba reached down and began to fiddle with his kunai pouch, to throw or not to throw? After a full minute of consideration, he reluctantly put the weapon away. He didn't really want to get in trouble on the second day.

"Tenten, during lunch, I demand a spar." She grinned.

"I'm so in."

—

A free period and another class later, Kiba found himself standing in front of the kunoichi and waiting for the other ninja to clear the area from students.

"Kiba!" Naruto called. "How far away do you want them?"

"Twenty five by twenty five," He responded immediately. "Be sure to catch any fly away weapons. I don't want to get detention because I impaled some kid."

"Hai!"

"What are they doing?" Ron muttered to Harry as they watched the two ninja face-off. The boy shrugged.

"Looks like they're staring each other down," Harry replied. Behind him, Hermione frowned as she put the pieces together.

"They're fighting!" She exclaimed horrified, "They've even got the puppy in there!" Before Hermione could spring into action, she was held back by the girl she recognized as Hinata.

"H-Hermione-san. D-Don't wo-worry." Hermione relaxed a little, Hinata had to have some sort of calming agent on her skin, she just _had _to. The girl's attention went back to the center of the ring of students. Sakura now stood in between the two.

"Rules!" She yelled loudly enough so the students could hear. "No killing each other, or any of the surrounding students. No injuring the students. Try not to land yourself in the hospital wing if possible." She paused. "Students! No being stupid and running into the spar trying to stop them. You may die, and if that's the case, we cannot be held responsible. AND BEGIN!" The pink-haired ninja jumped away from the center.

Tenten reached down for her pouch and from it she took three shuriken. The students watched in silence as she threw all three at once. Kiba just easily dodged the three, however one surprise shuriken ended up nicking his cheek. Several girls squeaked when they saw the barest hint of blood drip out of his cheek. He was grinning like a maniac.

"Oh man, I've been wanting to do this for a long time," he said. Tenten blinked as she realized that Akamaru wasn't next to the boy.

"Oh shi–" She was cut off when she felt fangs penetrate her skin. She winced. "Damn it Kiba! I don't want to kick a puppy!" Several students gasped. The boy smirked.

"Shikyaku no Jutsu!" Kiba cried as he made the appropriate hand seals. The students watched as he fell to the ground on all fours. His nails and teeth elongated and sharped, giving the boy a more feral look.

Back on the sidelines, Ron looked over at Hermione nervously. "Hermione? I-Is he a werewolf?" The girl shook her head hesitantly.

"Werewolves can't change unless they're under the full moon. I don't think there's a case of a werewolf being able to partway transform at all. We should probably ask Lupin the next time we get the chance," Hermione reasoned, "But...that would explain his slitted pupils."

In the open field, Akamaru had finally let go of Tenten's leg. This allowed her a chakra enhanced jump over the charging Kiba. Using a kunai from her pouch, she threw one she calculated his blind spot would be. Tenten was satisfied to hear the boy let out a growl of pain. He removed the kunai forcibly from his shoulder. He was still grinning.

On the Slytherin sidelines, Draco was practically growling. "How indignant. They aren't even fighting as wizards. They're fighting as _muggles. _It's disgusting!"

"They are not fighting as muggles," Shino said to the boy. "They're fighting as ninja."

"It's degrading."

"Malfoy-san, tell me. Would you want to go up against one in a fight?" The boy paled at the thought. Shino turned his attention back to the two with interest.

As Tenten fell to the ground, she took a shuriken out of her pouch and waited for Kiba to make his move. Exactly as she predicted, the boy jumped into her line of fire in an attempt to attack her. The weapons master twisted her body so that she was in the perfect position to hit him as he tried to bite and scratch her.

It's a shame she forgot about Akamaru.

Just as she was about to inflict bodily harm on Kiba, the puppy jumped out of nowhere and attached himself to her wrist. This distracted her enough that Kiba was able to scratch her up pretty badly. Tenten cried out in pain.

"Just _what is going on here?_" One of the teachers demanded. Tenten picked herself from off the ground and smiled.

"Nothing." It would have probably been more convincing if Kiba didn't have kunai and shuriken wounds and if Tenten wasn't bleeding so badly.

Or if they had stopped the spar.

"This certainly does not seem like anything!" McGonagall stepped into the sparring circle. The nearest ninja was on her like Akamaru was on Tenten.

"I would not suggest that, sensei. The reason we have this circle is to keep people from getting hurt. By stepping into the circle, you may get seriously injured or killed." McGonagall stared at the boy for a moment and he just stared right back.

"You mean that if one of them miscalculates, _my students could die?_"

"No. We are highly trained shinobi. If one of the kunai or shuriken gets thrown carelessly, the nearest ninja can intercept it easily. They're not going all out anyway." Sasuke looked towards the fight and frowned.

"It's over." McGonagall looked towards the two and gasped. Tenten was limping towards her with a bleeding leg and a small uninjured puppy trailing behind. Kiba was faring no better, his shoulder and back had been stabbed multiple times and much of his shirt was torn. Mutually, they were grinning like idiots.

"How was it?" Sasuke asked.

"Great. I want to do that again. Maybe in a couple of days."

"We should throw a tournament," Tenten suggested. "It could be like the Chunnin exams. Only with less invasions and creepy sand-nin."

"We should ask for both Asuma-sensei and Gai-sensei to come with their students and hold an all day tournament. It would be a good test for stamina."

"You will do no such thing! Fighting is not tolerated on school grounds!" McGonagall looked them over again. "Your punishment will be determined later. Now get to the hospital wing."

"Hospital wing? What for?" Kiba asked blankly. The teacher scowled and pointed to the blood.

"For _that._" They looked over themselves.

"Why the hell didn't Tsunade-sama send a healer with us?" Tenten asked.

—

"Idiot children! You fight with sharp objects and don't expect to be hurt?!" the school healer cried loudly.

"Actually–"

"Honestly, don't be so stupid! Next time you may be killed!" Tenten resigned and let the nurse heal her wounds. The women had been going on for the last fifteen minutes about idiot children and their tendency to get hurt. Tenten didn't really blame her, she could easily imagine the injuries growing school wizards could get.

In just a moment the nurse had healed up all her scars and cuts. Tenten looked down at her unblemished skin and smiled.

"Thanks. But if you got rid of my callouses, then I'm gonna have to hurt you." The nurse scowled.

"Good, then you won't hurt yourself!" They glared at each other for a moment before they both fell into hearty laughter.

"Hem-hem," a sickly sweet spoke. Tenten and Kiba suppressed a shiver. "Now now, there's no need to be afraid. Miss Pomfrey, would you mind stepping out?" The woman frowned but complied.

The witch waved her wand and the door locked. The two ninja gulped. "Now that she's gone, down to pressing issues. The Ministry hates Dumbledore. That _old man_ is not the kind of man to hire someone from the very Ministry that's trying to sack him." The women looked at the two with deadly seriousness. "You and your friends are from that hidden continent." Kiba and Tenten blinked, how did she know...? "You may have seen it in the newspaper, the continent that is deemed too dangerous for any wizard to visit. The place in which savages and killers lurk."

"Hey! We're not savages!" Umbridge smirked.

"I'm sure you're not. Despite your lack of manners, magic, and your willingness to fight for _entertainment._ You're nothing more then slightly special muggles." Tenten scowled and crossed her arms.

"If you're trying to win us over Umbridge-sensei, you're gonna have to try harder then that. Tell us, how do you know where we're from when we haven't announced it."

"You _muggles_," she spat out, "probably know very little about the going ons of the modern Wizarding World and common laws that must be followed. Dumbledore, though hard to catch, is infact under the control of the media. His claims of the Dark Lord returning are nothing more then lies. He continues to voice his belief like the old man he is. I've said it once, I'll say it again, he is senile, he needs to relinquish his position as headmaster." Umbridge turned her head towards the window, both shinobi followed her gaze.

"About a month before school started, a large influx of magic disrupted many wizard's sleep. That morning, a story about a large mass of land appearing on the pacific ocean was published. In the newspaper, it mentioned that anyone found going to that land would be severely punished by law. As you can guess, Dumbledore was interested in this foreign land, but knowing his current popularity with everyone, he knew the moment he stepped foot on that land, he would be arrested with no qualms. So he came to the ministry and searched out for the Minister of Magic. I was with him at the time. Right in the front office, he asked Mr. Fudge for permission to visit this continent. Fudge was about ready to accept, but I intervened. During that short meeting between us, Dumbledore agreed to make me the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Ordered by the Ministry, I am to look over the professors and the headmaster. I am to make sure he has noone believing his lies.

"Well, I'm not sure who he met there, or what went on when he was on that ruthless land, but I know that about two weeks after that, he set up an appointment with Fudge. With my advice he went on with meeting Dumbledore. The headmaster was asking for permission to set up a portkey. The Minister agreed on only one condition, if Dumbledore would make me the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. He accepted."

Tenten scrunched her face together in confusion while Kiba digested the information. "So why are you telling us all this?"

"You are the only reason I have the power I do. For that, you have my utter respect. My position is almost equivalent to a Headmaster. If I wanted to, I could very well expel you and your friends right here." Kiba's eyes widened. If that happened, the mission would be considered a failure and they probably wouldn't get paid! It would be worse case scenario! "I can see that this is not an option. I've seen you in the morning. You broke many school rules in one day. Fighting, bringing dangerous weapons, and going into the Forbidden Forest. You may be under Dumbledore's control, but from now on, you are also under mine." Their jaws dropped.

"We're your _subordinates_?" Tenten asked disbelievingly. Umbridge smiled.

"I guess you could call it that. You should be proud, with my power, I can override any expulsions you may get. I can make sure you never serve a day of detention." Umbridge's smile turned into a smirk. "Plus if you don't agree, I'll make sure you're expelled from this school."

"Will Naruto still have to serve his detention tonight?" Tenten asked.

"Of course. I will not tolerate liars."

"We accept," Tenten said confidently. Kiba flicked his eyes between the two as he continued to digest all this information. Umbridge smiled.

"I knew you would. Now I do believe the nurse would like back in by now. Ta-ta!" The teacher left and an angry looking Pomfrey stomped back in.

"Off with you! Class already started!" The ninja ran to their classes together.

"_Im-Impossible. Why'd you do that?! We're loyal to only Konoha and until the end of the year, Dumbledore!_" Kiba exclaimed.

"_That may be true, but if we break enough rules, Dumbledore may just get fed up and expel us. I doubt it, but it'll be fun to tease her,_" Tenten explained. Realization dawned on the boy.

"_I see! That's brilliant of you Tenten! That bitch is going down!_" Kiba shouted.

"_That bitch is going down,_" Tenten agreed.

—

_Language Change_

The rest of the day came and went. Tenten and Kiba were released from the hospital wing only ten minutes into the second half of the day. They had yet to tell anyone of their position as Umbridge's subordinates. As dinner rolled around, the two were finally ready to announce it.

"So what happened in the hospital wing? Were you punished?" Ino asked as she reached for a piece of the chicken that lay on the table.

"Punished is good word for it," Kiba muttered.

"We're Umbridge's subordinates." All around the eight, people choked on whatever they were chewing on at the time.

"_WHAT?!_" Two of the girls cried simultaneously. Tenten winced.

"That goes against our mission! Unless Dumbledore ordered it, then we're breaking protocol!" Naruto exclaimed.

"In the hospital wing, the Ikeike-senseipractically explained her life story. She's teaching at this school because of us. Remember that portkey thing that took us to the Order's headquarters? Apparently you need permission to do that. In exchange for getting us here, Dumbledore had to give lots of power to her. She has the power to expel us. Expulsion is immediate failure of the mission. We had to do it or else we'd be gone. She's seen us train in the morning, guys. She knows the rules we've broken. We have to follow her."

"Can't Dumbledore overrule expulsions?" Sakura asked logically. Tenten and Kiba paused.

"Alright, we just want to play her," Kiba admitted. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"You should've just said that!"

"So we have to pretend to follow her now?"

"As fun as you may see this, it isn't good. Hermione-san suspects us of working for the Ministry already," Shino said. They stared at him. "My bugs gathered the information. If we work for her, they will try to avoid us. Then Naruto's and Sakura's mission will become a failure." Kiba's eyes glinted mischievously.

"Unless, we can prove we were forced to do it. It's only been two days. Ikeike-sensei doesn't know about jutsu yet. All Ikeike-sensei knows about us is that we can walk on walls and we fight with weapons. We just have to prank her under a Henge in plain site of Hermione-san and Harry-kun and release it in front of them later." Ino, Sakura, Kiba, and Naruto grinned in the most ominous way.

"She'll soon find out what happens if you mess with Konoha ninja."

—

"_I don't get it! I'm suppose to be Umbridge's subordinate and I still have to go through detention!_" Naruto said loudly in Japanese. Harry looked at the boy in confusion. Naruto was too busy swearing to notice. The two arrived at the office and Harry knocked on the door tentatively.

"Come in!" sang an annoyingly sweet voice. Harry scowled, but pushed open the door anyway. He gaped at what laid inside. Pink and white lace adorned anything that was solid and a flat surface. Vases stood on the windows, each containing dried flowers. On one of the shelves, a collection of ornamental plates stood, each decorated with a kitten wearing a different bow around it's neck. Harry glanced to his right and noted that Naruto was in a similar state of disgust.

"Good evening Mr. Potter, Mr. Uzumaki."

"Evening."

"Evening, _Ikeike-sensei._"

"Excuse me, Mr. Uzumaki?"

"It's a polite way to address a teacher." Umbridge seemed satisfied by the explanation and made no further questions.

The teacher pointed to a desk in which two pieces of parchment lay. "Well, sit down." Naruto followed her instructions. Harry however stood up and looked even more nervous then ever.

"Er...Professor Umbridge? Er — before we start, I-I wanted to ask you a...a favor." Her eyes narrowed.

"Oh yes?"

"Well, I'm...I'm on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. And I was suppose to be at the tryouts for the new Keeper at five o'clock Friday and I was — was wondering whether I could skip detention that night and do it — do it another night...instead..."

"Qw-ee-d-etch?" Naruto asked comically, "I think my translator's on the fritz." Harry was too nervous to roll his eyes at the boy.

"Oh no. This is your punishment for spreading evil, nasty, attention-seeking lies, Mr. Potter, and punishments certainly cannot be adjusted to suit the guilty one's convenience. No, you will come here at five o'clock tomorrow, and the next day, and on Friday too, and you will do your detentions as planned. I think it rather a good thing that you are missing something you really want to do. It ought to reinforce the lesson I am trying to teach you."

Naruto watched as Harry reached his boiling point and calm down again. Ah, good, his charge was learning. Although, at a pretty slow pace.

"There," Umbridge said sweetly, "we're getting better at controlling our temper already, aren't we? Now you two are going to be doing some lines for me." Naruto looked at his empty hands and sighed. He thought he wouldn't need anything for this! "No, Mr. Potter. You're going to be using a rather special one of mine." The Ministry representative took out two black quills with unusually sharp points. "Here you are."

Naruto took the quill and looked it over several times. He had noted earlier that there was no ink on the table.

"Mr. Potter, I want you to write '_I will not tell lies_.' Mr. Uzumaki, you will write, '_I will not support liars._'"

"How many times?"

"As long as it takes to _sink in._" Both of the boys looked over their parchment. Naruto took a deep breath and started writing. Harry however, looked confused.

"You haven't given me any ink."

"You won't be needing ink." Harry turned towards the parchment and slowly wrote his assigned sentence. He gasped in pain. The words on the parchment were scarred into his skin. The words started to heal, leaving only a trace of redness. Harry glanced over at Naruto, who didn't seem to mind in the slightest that he was being carved into. He turned to look at Umbridge, who was being amused by the two. He shifted around and continued to write, hoping that this wouldn't go on for too long.

"Mr. Uzumaki," she said after what seemed like hours, but in reality was just ten short minutes. "I'm certain your friends have told you what I told them in the hospital wing." Naruto subtly tensed.

"Yes."

"And you are aware that you are included in this deal, correct?"

"Yes."

"Good, good." Harry's grip on his quill tightened. The ninja had made a deal with Umbridge? Hermione would be interested in this.

Hours later, Umbridge had finally spoke, "The two of you, come here." Harry, relieved, dropped the quill haphazardly. He turned his chair around and held his hand out to Umbridge. She traced the scar over and smiled. "Tut, tut, I don't seem to have made much of an impression yet. Well, we'll just have to try again tomorrow evening, won't we? You may go." Harry stood up but didn't leave yet. It would be rude to Naruto if he did.

He held his own hand out to her and she frowned. On Harry's hand, the area around the scar was red, but on his, the red was quickly fading. "Well, I suppose it's gotten the point across. I'll see you tomorrow in class."

They left the classroom hurriedly.

—

"_That bitch!_" Sakura cried as soon as she saw Harry's hand. Harry hadn't even _offered _to have her see it. She just saw him rubbing it and figured out what had happened. He wasn't even planning on telling Hermione or Ron! From her pocket, she took out what appeared to be a container for something.

She squeezed a cream out onto her hand and rubbed it into Harry's injury. The boy didn't even bother protesting, knowing the people he was dealing with, it wouldn't make a difference. Next to him, Naruto stood grinning.

"How can you be so happy about the situation?" Harry questioned. "Doesn't your hand hurt?"

"I wouldn't even bother asking him about it," Sakura muttered. "He has a history of masochism. One time he was poisoned and he stabbed himself _with a kunai _to get the poison out." Harry blinked.

"How'd he get poisoned in the first place?"

"He was too arrogant."

"Hey! What did you expect me to do? Just sit there and allow those two mist-nin to kill us? Anyway, Sasuke-teme is the one that tried to take them on!"

"And he did much better then you ever did!"

"Hey, who came up with the strategy to get Kakashi-sensei out of the water prison?" Sakura rolled her eyes.

"You're still arrogant, idiot." Harry looked in between the two. For being potential spies, these two were really good actors.

"Harry-kun, I want you to come to me or Hinata-chan after each detention. That way we can heal your injuries. Understood?" He nodded dumbly. "Good."

Day two, complete.

—

Kabuto was confused. The Sound Four was confused. Hell, even the great snake sannin was confused. In front of them towered buildings that were unnecessarily tall. Bright lights flashed, blinding their keen sense of sight. Strangely and inconveniently dressed people passed them with curious looks. Though, by a select few, fearful looks.

Metal _things _went by them just as quickly as they could run. By observation, they noted that people got inside these metal machines and apparently on will, these machines would move.

"Kabuto, I wish for you to take as many notes on this world as possible. I want _everything _you see here compiled in a report when we return with Sasuke-kun."

"I understand, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto whipped out a notebook that he carried with him to this land. He eagerly jotted down and occasionally added his own opinion in on things.

Orochimaru turned towards the Sound Four (who thankfully had the foresight to Henge into something that looked normal among these people). "I want you to do a search for Sasuke's chakra. If you don't find it anywhere in the immediate area, find it in the distance." The four went to work instantly.

Kabuto was furiously scribbling notes down that he didn't notice a woman and man passing by, talking to each other about various things. "Kabuto, find out what language they are speaking and learn it," Orochimaru commanded.

"Understood. Orochimaru-sama, I'm not sure yet what kind of money they use here, and I find it unlikely they use the same type as us. We may have to consider pickpocketing." Orochimaru showed no change in emotion, but for Kabuto, it was clear that his master didn't want to go through something as demeaning as that. The white haired boy sighed as he realized that the job would fall on him.

"Orochimaru-sama. There are no signs of Sasuke-kun. The area about one hundred meters around is filled with civilians. Pass that, however, there are only a few people with faint chakra signatures that may be high level Shinobi," Kidomaru reported.

"There may be other Shinobi in the area, but they'd be masking their chakra signatures. I would advise us to keep on alert," Tayuya added quickly. Orochimaru didn't say anything but nodded slightly.

"We need to discover and learn their language, find a method of transportation, and learn more about this world," Orochimaru counted off. Above them, a loud noise caught their attention. When the six looked up, they saw what appeared to be a metal bird that flew without flapping it's wings. "...And find out what creature that is."

"Orochimaru-sama, there's to be a bookstore directly across the wave of metal monsters," Sakon pointed out having seen a building full of books. The boy scratched his head. "But I'm not sure how we get across..."

Kabuto observed how one of the many flashing lights turned red and a decent sized group crossed the street with no cars moving across them. "I daresay that we have to wait till that light turns red and then we cross."

"Or we could jump over the metal things!" Tayuya said. Kabuto rolled his eyes. Orochimaru and himself had already begun the short trek to the crosswalk. The Sound Four noticed they were being abandoned, and rushed to keep up.

A slightly panicked group of Sound Shinobi later, they made it across fairly safely. Though the sheer _size _of one of the metal monsters freaked them out a bit. Especially when the driver lost control of the brake pedal for a moment. Currently, they were entering the decently sized bookstore.

"Split up," Orochimaru muttered, "Take twenty minutes to find anything on the metal monsters outside, the creature we saw above us, this world, this language, the currency, and the people that live in this world."

"Understood," the five said simultaneously.

—

"What have you gathered?" Orochimaru said as soon as the last of the group joined him. The snake sannin himself was lucky enough to have found books in Japanese about airplanes and cars. He also discovered a small Japanese to English dictionary. He had seen the characters everywhere in the story and when he found a book with the same characters, along with Kanji, he grabbed the book.

"I found a book about the world's currency and about general populace. It is in the language these people speak and we will need a language dictionary," Kabuto reported as he pushed his glasses up.

"Sakon and myself found a book with a picture of those birds we saw outside and the metal machines outside. Like Kabuto's, it's in the strange language," Tayuya said.

Kidomaru looked up from the books he was pretending to read. "I took three large language dictionaries and lesson books. Apparently this language is called Ahn-gre-esh."

"Like Kabuto, I found books about the world's currency and populace. I also found a book on the worlds geography."

"Good, very good. I do believe we have enough information to make it within this world."

"So...how are we exiting?" Tayuya asked with a slight smirk. The Four exchanged grins while Kabuto rolled his eyes for Orochimaru. Considering he's too evil to do that.

—

They could've just walked right out and have the security devices beep noisily and make their quick escape. No. Rather, they opted to make a grand exit. A grand exit that may or may not have involved explosion tags. An exit that may or may not have had buyers trapped under many metal, wood, and paper.

But what did it matter to them? It's not like these people could see it all happen on a small box made of glass and plastic.

Well, the conclusion of the story is that they managed to escape the scene with a camera getting only a glance of them as they ran away into the bright California day. The six finally stopped to catch their breath at the nearest park they came across. While not completely reassuring, it gave the Doton user a bit of relief and familiarity.

"We stop here," Orochimaru commanded. The five took a seat under the shade of a rather large tree. Orochimaru took his seat on a nearby bench. Kidomaru handed one Japanese/English dictionary to Orochimaru and another to Kabuto. He kept the third one for himself. They spread the books on the ground and began the long studying session.

They could only hope that they wouldn't have to do this in the future.

—

"So apparently these 'airplanes' take people from place to place. They land at designated stations and from there you can get on another plane and go to another place," Tayuya explained, "It costs about two hundred 'dollars' per person to get from place to place on average. It really depends on where you're going." Tayuya looked down at the notes she took. "Apparently for this travel, there's rules to follow. We're not allowed to bring our kunai or shuriken or weapons of any sort on board."

"Which can be solved with a simple sealing," Kabuto pointed out. Tayuya nodded and continued.

"I'd suggest taking a plane to various popular places to search for Sasuke. If we can't find anything, then we should get onto another plane." Tayuya pursed her lips. "Another thing, we need some sort of identification to board a plane. With us being foreigners and not having any sort of identification here, we're gonna have to find a way around that."

"So we need to get over a thousand of these dollars to board a plane. Very good. What have you learned, Kabuto?"

"I can now speak the basics of this language. I can greet someone in 'English,' I can also say various random words. I am going to have to study the book more when I get the chance."

"That is good. We may need you when we go into this airport. Kidomaru?"

"I studied the world's geography and there are seven continents in this world, excluding ours. As a matter of fact, I don't think they even know about our world. When we crossed that waterway, people were playing in it and they didn't seem to be paying the least bit attention towards the land directly in front of them.

"Also, with some calculations, I determined that we are either in North America or in Europe. Through some estimates, I've discovered we're in the United States of America. Most likely in a large city called Lahs Ahn-jay-lohs."

"Sakon?"

"Those metal things are called cars, or automobiles. They, like airplanes, are a means of transportation. However, they're much slower. There are places where you can rent a car, but I'd advise against that. We could probably just make our way through towns by running."

"Good, good. Jirobo?"

"I, like Kabuto-san, studied the language and I am a bit behind in the studies. I can say only a few English greetings." Orochimaru acknowledged him.

"Orochimaru-sama. We're going to need money before we even consider getting on one of these airplanes. As much as I know you hate it, we're going to have to steal some. We're also going to have to steal ID cards."

"Or we could just steal a few bucks, and then use a genjutsu to give the illusion of paying the right amount of money," Tayuya said.

"In this book, there's picture's of the world's monies," Sakon observed. The boy flipped the pages until he came to a picture of a green piece of paper with a 1-0-0 stamped on. "Hand me the dictionary." Jirobo did as was said and the five waited patiently for the ninja to translate the page. About twenty minutes later, the boy sat up with a triumphant smile. "This is the American currency. As are all the coins and paper notes on the next three pages."

Tayuya looked over Sakon's shoulder at the book page. "So we pay with that? It looks fairly easy to copy, shouldn't whatever government they have here be concerned about that?"

"Does it matter, Tayuya-_chan_?" Sakon asked. The girl glared at him but ultimately ignored him.

"Where are we going in this world?" Kidomaru looked down at his own journal.

"Well, we can go to one of three places. We could stay in this state and go to a place call Sah-crah-mayn-to. We could go to Lahs Vay-gahs in Nay-vah-dah. Or we could go to Phay-oh-neex in Ahri-zoh-na. The Lahs Vay-gahs in Nay-vah-dah's closer then Phay-oh-neex," Kidomaru explained, " And going to Sah-crah-mayn-to would be a waste. Honestly, how big could this district be?" The five sound nin looked over towards Orochimaru for their destination.

"We're going to Lahs Vay-gahs," the snake sannin finally said.

And so the epic journey of the sound ninja through America began.

**End of Chapter**

—

**Japanese words**

Ikeike-sensei - I trust you know what sensei means. However Ikeike is translated into bitch. I don't know how accurate it is, considering I have to trust my sources.

**Notes**

Orochimaru's situation - Seriously, how typical is it for Orochimaru to immediantly find one of Voldemorts followers and then they go off to make evil plots? I think it'd take them a while to find each other. Hence his epic trip through America. Which is a more likely scenario.

Twenty-five by Twenty-five - I assume they use the metric system, considering the rest of the world does. I think that's about eighty by eighty in feet. I don't know. It's too early to do math.

Umbridge - While she may be a drone from the ministry, I personally think she's a complete and utter _genius bitch _who wants followers. Don't even underestimate a genius bitch.

Terrible pronounciation of states and cities - Well, one, it's realistic. Two, it's kinda tribute to my friend who does that all the time. She doesn't even read this fic. xD

_"Honestly, how big could this district be?"_ - They don't know that it's a state, and opt to call it a distric. If you look at the map of their world, you'll see that the land is pretty divided and I bet they seperate things into districs, rather than states.


	5. Chapter 5

The movie was also awesome, I think the greatest part was when Fred and George escaped from the school. It also perfectly transitioned from that to the climax. I can't wait for the next one.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Naruto.

"Talking" - What language is dominant at the time.

"_Talking_" Empasis or what language is foreign at the time.

_Blah -_ Flashback

**Chapter 5**

The rest of the week flew by fairly quickly. Umbridge claimed her title as High Inquisitor and under her, they found out that Hermione had begun to suspect them vigorously. To prove her point, the girl attempted to search the library for any information on them that may prove her theory right. Unfortunately for her, they knew for a fact that there was nothing on Konoha or ninja society within that library.

Well, within the public sections anyway. Honestly they had no idea what lurked in the restricted section and that was on their list of things to look up/go in illegally.

What really topped of the week was how Ikeike-sensei had treated them. She made them send messages to the other teachers during class, gave them special treatment, and basically made them immune to any detention. _At all. _Snape had given Sakura detention at one point and Umbridge got her out of it. It was convenient, yet at the same time annoying.

Both training and information gathering had been going well. They learned plenty about the wizarding world in the first week before school and were currently working on learning about the 'muggle' world. They began a journal which would later become the mission report.

Along the way, they inadvertently gained much homework. A majority of them didn't do it at all, the few that did do it didn't spend much time working on their papers. Grades weren't mentioned at all in the mission protocol and they used that to their advantage.

Rather then doing the homework, they continued to learn as much as they could about various things in the wizarding world. If whatever they were researching at the time had to do with their school work, then so be it. They were ninja, and they were curious.

As the Saturday morning sun rose, all eight Shinobi watched the sunrise in content silence upon one of the towers.

"You know," Kiba said as he laid down on the hard stone, "Today's is one of the school's free days. We don't have to go to classes."

"Is that so?" Sakura yawned, "What on Earth are we going to do all day?"

"We could always pull that prank on Ikeike-sensei," Kiba suggested.

"Nah, if we want it to be really good, we're gonna have to plan it out better," Naruto said.

"I-I he-heard that th-there's a s-sport wi-wizards pla-play. We cou-could che-check it o-out."

"You mean the one on flying brooms?" Hinata nodded, although from Shino's position, he couldn't see.

"Ohh, Quidditch?" Tenten asked as she sat up. "I've been studying that. It's really interesting, apparently they have a point system where if you make 14 goals but don't catch a small gold ball, it's worth nothing. We should start our own team, I bet we'd win just about every time. Not to mention we've worked hard on our teamwork and strategies. We've also got Hinata's Byakugan to spot the snitch."

"Wouldn't that be cheating?"

"Nowhere in the rules does it mention banning of the use of Ninja Arts."

"We'll have to ask Dumbledore about that later. Hey, do you think we have to dress up in those robes today?"

"Nope."

"Good, they suck," Naruto complained, "I've been missing my orange jumpsuit the entire week!"

"We haven't," Ino muttered.

"Hey!"

"Really Naruto, the robes look better on you then that jumpsuit," Sakura admitted. The boy pouted and crossed his arms, somehow restraining himself from saying anything. "But really, what are we gonna do? As interesting as Wizard's sports are, I doubt that'll entertain us today and tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"If I remember right, they have Saturday and Sunday off."

"Lucky bastards."

"M-my team an-and I th-thought we sh-should document w-what we s-see in t-the Forbidden F-Forest."

"That's a good idea, Hinata," Tenten said, "We could also map it out. If we made copies, we could give one to Dumbledore and the rest to us. I'm sure we'd be using it often." The girl leaned over the edge of the tower and looked over the massive school. "We could probably try and map out this castle too."

"I want to start my magical research too. I bet we could keep Hokage-sama from finding out our grades if we finish it at the end of the year. We'd all have to help out though." She eyed everyone. "And I mean ALL."

"We also have to plan out Ikeike-sensei's prank. I'm pretty sure Kiba and I could do that alone. Maybe we could get the help of the Weasley twins too," Naruto said. Some of the shuddered. In the two short weeks they had known the twins, they discovered their affinity towards pranks and despite being ninja, they had been the subject of some of these pranks.

"So we have no idea what to do, yet we have plenty to do," Sasuke observed.

"So what's your call, Naruto?" Tenten asked, a bit twitchy. The blond boy grinned.

"Alright. Kiba and I will be working on planning the prank. We'll seek out the Weasley twins for help. Sakura, get started on the plans for the magical research. Ino, Hinata, Shino, and Sasuke, start scouting the forest. Tenten, look up more on Quidditch and ask Dumbledore about starting our own team," the boy ordered. When he finished, he puffed up his chest and looked very proud of himself.

"...Well, what do you know, he's a natural leader," Tenten said hesitantly.

"Of course! I'm gonna be the next Hokage!"

"Although a little stupid at times," the girl added. Naruto didn't notice.

"ALRIGHT TEAM! ONWARDS! TO THE FOOD!" The orange clad ninja jumped from the tower and the other sighed.

"Always about food," Sakura muttered. Nonetheless, she stood up and pursued the boy down. The others quickly followed.

The poor Astronomy teacher had no idea why children were falling from the sky.

—

_Language Change_

Kiba and Naruto were in the process of searching for the twins. As it turned out, the two were hard to find, which would be disappoint had they not had Akamaru. After breaking into the seventh year dormitory and taking some of the Weasley's possessions, Akamaru led them on a chase through the castle. Twist after twist. Turn after turn. It was a very confusing run, but it does have a happy ending.

A happy ending filled with a pile of confused teens and a yapping puppy.

"As irresistible as we are–"

"–We would rather not be thrown to the ground in a violent heap."

"Good job, Akamaru!" Kiba praised. The puppy barked and wagged it's tail happily. After organizing themselves again, the two Shinobi got right down to business.

"We need to prank Umbridge and we wish to collaborate," Naruto said. The twins grinned.

"Oh George, whatever shall we do? These ninja wish to work with us, but are they worthy?"

"Why Fred, I am not sure! Why don't they prove to us they are?" Kiba and Naruto took the hint and exchanged looks. Kiba took a step back and turned around, holding his nose in the process.

"OIROKE NO JUTSU!" Naruto cried loudly. Kiba heard the poof of a Henge and it took every part of his mind to keep him facing away.

"YOU'RE IN," the twins agreed simultaneously. Kiba heard another poof and turned around.

"We have the ability to turn into anyone or into anything," Kiba explained, "we could turn into one of the students, teachers, or animals. I'm certain if someone had great control, that person could turn into the tiniest insect."

"We also have something you don't have," Naruto added. The twins watched curiously as he took a piece of paper out of his pouch. "Explosion notes. With our assistance, we could cause an explosion that could cave a classroom."

"However, we don't want to use those if possible, people may get hurt," Kiba interjected quickly.

"We approve," the two said at the same time.

"I think it's about time they meet Lee, don't you agree Fred?"

"I do so agree." Both boys paled.

"Lee? As in Rock Lee? He's _here?!_" Kiba asked frantically. He shook his head wildly as if this Lee would appear out of nowhere.

"That's impossible, Kiba!" Naruto stated matter of factly, "If he were here, the whole school would know." The boy relaxed a little.

"I guess you're right." Fred and George were about to question, but Naruto shot them a look that clearly told them that they didn't want to know.

"And off we go!" one of the twins said happily as he grabbed Naruto's collar and started dragging him off.

—

After a twenty minute trek through the school, they finally met the boy dubbed as Lee Jordan. A few introductions later and the two ninja found themselves in a room they didn't even know _existed. _The walls were like any of the other classrooms, but only a single table stood in the middle of the room. Books that have nothing to do with school or studying lined the shelf of a single bookshelf..

"Welcome boys, to the Room of Requirement!" Lee announced.

"If you require it–"

"–you get it!"

"OH GREAT ROOM OF REQUIREMENT. I REQUIRE MISO RAMEN!" Naruto cried to the ceiling. Kiba leaned against the wall and banged his head into it several times. Of course, just as the twins had said, a bowl of ramen appeared on the planning table. Naruto pounced on it, praising the room while doing it, "OH GREAT ROOM. I THANK YOU."

The three Hogwarts boys watched in a mix of disgust and awe as Naruto consumed bowl after bowl nearly instantly. "Bloody hell," George commented, "how many stomachs does this guy have?"

"Noone's quite sure," Kiba responded.

About ten minutes and twenty bowls later, Naruto leaned back in the chair he was in and burped contentedly. Everyone in the room was silent as the bowls disappeared, one by one. The whiskered boy looked up at everyone and tilted his head to the side. "Are we gonna get planning or what?"

In that moment, the Hogwarts males shook out of their utterly shocked states and took their seats by the blond Shinobi. Kiba opted to gather a piece of parchment and a quill from the nearest source. Just moments later, the five began a deep discussion.

"Alright. We have some requirement for this prank," Naruto stated seriously, "First one, while we don't have to use all, we need some of the Shinobi involved. Two, we cannot be seen as Shinobi in anyway. If we are, it's as if we aren't involved in it in anyway. That's why we showed you our Henge Jutsu. Three, we plan to undo the Henge in front of some of the student body, but noone distrust worthy."

"If you don't mind us asking–"

"–why do you want to prank Umbridge?"

"From what we've heard, you guys are peachy with her," Lee added. Kiba and Naruto exchanged looks.

"Fine, we'll tell you. But don't tell anyone else, we don't want the word to spread," Kiba said. The three nodded. The boy took a deep breath and released it. "If you recall the spar between Tenten and I, we were taken to the hospital wing. Inside the hospital wing, Umbridge blackmailed us." The three's faces twisted into anger. One of them was wondering if part of this was some sort of setup. "We reasoned that while we may have to do her bidding, we don't have to do it willingly. That's why we want to show her that."

"What about what you call her?" Lee questioned. Kiba and Naruto smirked.

"If you translate it, it goes from Ikeike-sensei to Professor Bitch!" Naruto exclaimed. The boys let this sink in, and in a second, they were roaring with laughter. Naruto looked particularly proud of himself.

"Alright, alright, we trust you," George said as he desperately tried to calm himself down. He waved his wand, and with a silent incantation, the quill that Kiba had taken, floated over to him.

"So boys, what do you have in mind?" Jordan questioned with a grin.

"Like we said, we need a Henge involved somewhere. And for the hell of it, we need something involving toads."

"Ah good, we can steal toad's feet from Snape's cabinet."

"I was thinking tadpoles, to prove that she's insignificant," Naruto suggested.

"Where are we gonna get tadpoles?" Kiba asked. "And no, we are NOT using your summons."

"Summons?"

"That's off topic," Kiba snapped. He looked over the currently blank parchment. "I say we involve that monstrosity that she wears. Honestly, _pink? _We should dye it black."

"We should dye _her _black."

"You are brilliant!" Naruto shifted.

"But how would we get tadpoles into the equation?" The boys pondered this for a moment before Fred came to a conclusion.

"We're going to replace every picture in her classroom with picture of tadpoles. To add insult to insult, we're gonna make the portraits speak! We did something like that to a teacher a few years ago. So it is possible." Fred, George, and Jordan smirked as they remembered how Lockhart had reacted.

"So we're changing Umbridge's portraits into pictures of tadpoles," Jordan said as he wrote that down on the parchment. "What should we make them say?"

"I know! They should be singing!" Naruto said, "They should sing something like; Mrs. Toad! Mrs. Toad! You're so fat! You're a freaking load! Mrs. Toad!"

"That's perfect!" Lee exclaimed. "We'll use that." The boy proceeded to then write down the lyrics. He looked over the plans. "Alright, so how're we gonna incorporated the Henge?" The boys set themselves to ponder this. Kiba suddenly gained a smiled.

"I've got it!"

—

Tenten was learning everything about Quidditch and then some. She had found a massive book on the sport and was utterly amazed at how seriously they took the game. They played it on broomsticks for Kami's sake! As she read the 349th Quidditch foul, she finally realized that the only reason they took the sport so seriously was because it was _the _only sport these wizard's must've played. Tenten was stuck between admiring them and shaking her head at them. She admired them because they were so dedicated, but sometimes dedication could be a bit pathetic.

She turned the page in the book and went on reading all the penalties. _Foul 398: No player may release thousands of toads on the field. _Tenten snickered as she realized that whoever did that at the time must've either been _seriously _drunk.

"Is that a book of Quidditch you've got in your hands?" the boy she recognized as Ron Weasley asked. It figured, boy, sports, _one freaking sport in the wizarding world_, of course he was a fan!

"Yep! Soon as I find Dumbledore, I'm gonna ask him about letting the Shinobi start their own Quidditch team." Ron's eyes widened only momentarily, but he regained his cool composure.

"But...you're ninja! Isn't that a little unfair?"

"Unfair how? We haven't ridden those ridiculous things you call broomsticks before, and knowing my team, we're not gonna practice one bit."

"Hey! Broomsticks aren't ridiculous! Why make a team when you're not even gonna respect the sport?"

"Because we want our egos lifted. We've been trained in teamwork since we became genin. It'd be interesting to see what we come up with on the spot. It'd be training," Tenten replied. Ron appeared to be seething.

"You shouldn't make it seem like you're gonna win! The Gryffindor team is going to crush your faces into the ground!" Ron shouted. The librarian made a 'Shhing' sound and his ears turned a distinct red as he realized exactly _where _he had decided to shout. Tenten marked her place in the book and turned around.

With a smirk, she said, "Is that so? Well, prove me wrong. Now if you'll excuse me, I do believe that's Dumbledore walking by the door." She moved from her spot, leaving a flustered Ron in her wake.

"Dumbledore-sama!" she called out. The aforementioned man stopped and waited for her to catch up.

"Yes Tenten?"

"I was reading up on wizards sports and I was wondering if it were possible for my team and I to set up a Quidditch team of our own." Dumbledore smiled at her.

"I don't see a problem in that. I can get Madam Hooch to teach you how to fly and move a broomstick..."

"With all due respect. I think it would be more fun for us to learn how to fly on our own." The old man's eyes twinkled.

"I insist that you at the very least have someone there to make sure you don't injure yourselves too badly." Tenten sighed. She had talked to this man about four or five times, and in those times, she had learned enough about him. One, he was overly concerned about his students. Two, he was a bit manipulative. Three, it was hard to sway him when he thought he was in the right.

"Alright. When should we start and where do we get the brooms?"

"I do believe Gryffindor is practicing next Friday at five. I'm certain you already know where the Quidditch Pitch is? Find the captain and ask her to lead you to the brooms. I'll ask McGonagall to inform her."

"Thank you, Dumbledore-sama." Tenten pivoted around and made her way back to the library, in the back of her mind, she had a feeling that this would be more trouble then it was worth.

—

_Language Change_

Sakura was bored. In less then an hour she had managed to figure out how the studies were to be conducted. She ran the experiment through her head once again.

First, she'd need Naruto, Tenten, Ino and Kiba to gather some test subjects. One from each year. Maybe if she felt like it, one from each year AND house. Knowing herself, it would probably end up like that.

Second, she would need to get many different spells that both a first year and a seventh year could preform. Ino and Tenten would be searching for these spells.

Third, see what the Sharingan and Byakugan picks up in the test subjects before the spells are cast. She would have to make sure they could even see magic in the first place, if they couldn't, then the whole experiment would be over right there. Hinata would have to test to see if these wizards were nothing more then special civilians.

Fourth, have the students cast the spell. See what the two bloodline limits pick up. She would have to test to see if the Sharingan could copy the spell, if it could predict where the spell was going, and if the Sharingan could pick up how the magic built up in the wand. She would also have to see what the Byakugan found.

Fifth, try and see if Shino's bugs could suck up magic like they could chakra. Shino and herself would study how the bugs reacted after a few days, would they be stronger? Weaker? Or would they just die?

Sixth, she and the others would analyze the data. And NONE of them were getting out of that. She would have to make sure of that.

But now that was all said and done Sakura had nothing to do. She could, of course, go searching for test subjects, but that was not a part of what she told herself to do. Anyway, she needed specific people to do this. If they didn't, they hadn't helped in the experiment and it would be wrong to give them credit.

She was such a good person to be so considerate of her teammates!

At least, that's how to reassured herself at night.

Maybe she could catch up to the group in the Forbidden Forest...? Sakura approached a window that faced the forest and frowned when she realized that the group was long gone. With a heavy sigh, she made her way around the castle, hopefully she'd run into someone she knew. Speaking of which...wasn't that Hermione coming down the stairs...?

"Hey Hermione!" Sakura yelled. She waved her hands frantically and the witch's attention was finally captured. Hermione changed her direction and headed towards the kunoichi.

"Yes?" It didn't take a genius to see that Hermione and her friends had been avoiding Sakura's group for the last few days. It also didn't take a genius to see her apprehensiveness towards the pink-haired girl.

"Ah, I was wondering if you'd like to hang out for the day. My friends are all off doing Kami knows what."

"Well, uh, I was heading towards the library. But...I suppose I can take some time away from that. I have been reading books for the most of last month," Hermione said uncertainly. Sakura was thoroughly surprised. She expected the girl to say no and to walk away. Sakura reasoned it as trying to gather information from her.

"It's alright, I'll go to the library. I've been in there only once this week and it wasn't even to read or study!" If Hermione was curious about what she had been doing, she made no comment of it. The two walked in silence to the library.

"So Sakura, how are you doing in school so far? How do you like Hogwarts?" Sakura's smile widened. Well, if she was going to be interrogated, it was nice to be asked questions politely.

"Well, I have to say, the school is very nice, it's much different then what I'm used to. My old school was nothing more then a tiny building with several classrooms. We stayed in one class the entire day, only moving to go practice kunai or shuriken throwing outside. Though occasionally we'd go on field trips."

"Where would go you go?"

"Ah, we'd go see historical locations and monuments, we seldom left the village."

"So you've finished most of your homework, correct?"

"Yep!" Sakura beamed. "I don't think my homework really reaches the teachers standards though. I wish I could study more, but my team and I still need to work on the basics. It's a bit challenging to learn without an instructor. Especially when it comes to Defense Against the Dark Arts." Hermione blinked, that really was a good point —this gave her an idea.

"I can understand, Umbridge really isn't a decent instructor at all. Our third year teacher was one of the best." Sakura tilted her head slightly.

"Why isn't he here now then? I would much rather have a quality teacher then this women."

"Well, uh, personal problems, I suppose."

Sakura nodded and didn't pursue farther. "How do you think you will you pass the OWLS tests when the time comes?" The pink-haired kunoichi shrugged.

"OWLS are there to determine your wizard career...right? Since you're a witch, you probably don't know this, but being a ninja is a career itself. It would be kind of annoying if we set ourselves up for a career in wizardry when we're perfectly happy being ninja."

Hermione accepted the explanation and shifted. "I was originally planning to do my potions homework here, I hope you don't mind Sakura. You can read a book I checked out a few days ago."

"Ah, thank you Hermione-san." Sakura read over the title, '_The Ministry and You._'

"So you're interesting in government? I thought Dumbledore said you were against the Ministry," Sakura commented as she flipped through the first few pages.

"Yes, but I figure this would be a good way to learn about who controls most that goes on in the wizarding world. Maybe it would help me understand why the Ministry's covering up about You-Know-Who's case." Sakura turned her attention towards the book and, read through past ministers and current departments in the ministry. Sakura found herself particularly interested in the Department of Mysteries. The two girls fell into an undisturbed silence.

About thirty minutes into the reading, Sakura resolved to mention to Hermione what she knew.

"You shouldn't underestimate our information gathering system," Sakura muttered. Hermione's quill stopped scratching upon the parchment.

"Excuse me?"

"We aren't spies." Hermione held back a gasp. How did they know about that?! "I can understand you suspicions, but they aren't true. Indeed it is strange for two people per house, one girl, one boy, but our leader made Dumbledore set us up like this." Sakura looked towards the window and sighed. "It's been so long since the ninja society has made contact with wizards. Heck, we didn't even know wizards existed until just recently. Tsunade-sama wants us to learn as much as possible about this world and that's why we're all split up."

"Please Hermione-san, don't think ill of us. It's not our fault we're set up like this," Sakura pleaded. Hermione looked at her a bit too harshly.

"What about your lack of knowledge in Wizarding Arts? Why on Earth would someone put someone so inexperienced into such a high level class?"

"We've been studying Ninja Arts since we were seven. While not exactly the same, we've learned to master things very quickly. If you've paid close attention to us in class, you'll notice we aren't struggling too much. Sure, we're a bit confused, but we're not too far behind at all."

"What about the facts? I've done research on ninja. They died out two thousand years ago. The last recorded ninja was Jiro Yamamoto. How could a whole society just disappear like that? Especially with wizard surveillance? I'm certain, even with your arts, that we'd be able to track you down."

Sakura leaned back in her chair and pondered the same things. A lot of things indeed weren't making sense. Why hadn't they detected each other for so long? Wizards could do just about everything, never minding the laws of physics, ninja could do similar things. Honestly, what could've been so powerful as to hide one race from another? It was unfathomable, the sheer power that would be needed just to do that. As Sakura pondered the possibilities, more and more questions popped up in her mind. Over a month ago, all villages were on alert. At the very same time, only one government out of many investigated their world. Was it possible... others couldn't see their world?

What was going on?

"I'm sorry, Hermione, I really don't know. It baffles me too. Please understand, we're just _twelve. _We're not very dangerous in ninja terms. As a wizard, we're next to useless. We're not here for any secret mission or something." Haha, right. "We're here to learn and to make friends. So what to do you say, want to be friends?"

Hermione wasn't going to end her suspicions. She had gone through enough to guarantee that. Quirrell seemed trustworthy at the time, so did Moody. Did they end up being happy-go-lucky friends? As if. But...it was hard to turn someone down when they were acting so desperate. Hesitantly she said,"we can be friends." Part one of Sakura's mission! Complete!

—

"What the hell is that?" Ino asked loudly as she jumped onto a branch. Soon, Shino, Hinata, and Sasuke joined her. All three of them looked down at what she was pointing out; Hinata blinked and quickly turned on her bloodline limit.

"It seems to be running on some sort of dark green energy. N-no, there's some bright blue energy in there too."

"Is it Chakra?" Ino asked. Hinata shook her head.

"I-I'm not sure what it is, b-but I thi-think it's magic," Hinata replied.

"Is it alive?" Sasuke questioned.

"I-I don't know."

"Isn't that like the thing we rode in to get to the train station? It appears to be of a different variety. Much older," Shino commented.

Indeed, the shinobi were staring down at a car. A car that had been left there for over three years. A certain _flying _car that was formerly owned by the Weasleys.

"But...didn't the car we rode in need someone controlling it? As far as I can see, it's moving and there's noone inside."

"Magic, Ino," Shino reminded, "These wizards can do everything. I'm sure that includes making a car move without anyone inside."

"I can't believe they even have a car in here," Sasuke muttered. The four had traveled around just inside the treelike. So far they had come across a few bowtruckles...

"_HOLY CRAP GET IT OFF OF ME!" Ino cried as she desperately tried to get the angry bowtruckle off of her sleeve. _

...something that Sasuke identified as a thestral...

_Sasuke frowned. "Only people that have seen people die can see a thestral..." The boy jumped away from the creatures without a second thought. Even the ever loud Ino quieted as she heard this. They left very quickly._

...a few failed transfiguration creatures...

"_T-that's the three eyed frog Shino-kun, Kiba-kun and I met in the forest on the first day. _

"_What about that thing that looks like a mix between a goblet and a rat?"_

"_W-well we were m-moving through t-the forest q-quickly. I-I'm sure we didn't f-find everything."_

...pixies...

_The four had decided to take a rest in a clearing that had what appeared to have some sort of fairies flying around. Sasuke and Shino set up a blanket they had brought as Ino and Hinata took out some food they had brought. Above them, the pixies were swirling in an unheard harmony. One particularly daring pixie landed on Hinata's head while she was eating a rice ball. _

"_Aw, how cute!" Ino smiled as she saw the tiny creature. "Hinata, I bet you could become some sort of small creature master or something!"_

"_A-aren't these the things that Naruto-kun was driving off with a kunai two weeks ago?" One pixie landed on Hinata's hand and she inspected it. The other pixies, taking this a greeting, flew closer to the group. _

"_Well, I find it adorable. I wish I had a camera!" Ino squealed with delight that only she could find._

"_Guys, we should get moving," Sasuke said, sensing imminent danger. Another pixie flew closer to Hinata. The other three agreed and left disappointed pixies in their wake._

_And another potential disaster was averted by Sasuke._

...and a car. All of which Shino, the unofficial recorder, carefully put to memory.

"You know, I bet if we go far enough into the forest, we might find a bijuu," Ino joked. She jumped a few branches.

"You shouldn't joke like that, Ino," Shino scolded.

"Awh, why not? It's all in good fun!" As she said that, they heard a distinct roar in the distance. Ino stopped in her tracks and nearly fell fifty feet. "Eheheh. Maybe we should start getting back. I-I mean, it is getting pretty late. We'll probably miss dinner if we keep going this way." Behind her, the three rolled their eyes. Only Ino.

"S-she does h-have a p-p-point," Hinata stuttered. She, like Ino, heard the roar and was afraid of whatever may lay out there. She was pretty certain that whatever it was _wasn't _a demon of any kind but she wasn't going to risk it.

"Let's head back then," Sasuke said. The four began to move again, this time going in an opposite direction. Sasuke took the opportunity, as the unofficial leader, to make tomorrow's plans clear. "I want to do a full circle around the forest with no stopping. That way we can get a shape for our map."

"Tomorrow I want a new group," Ino complained, "As nice as it is to be stuck with Sasuke all day, you guys are _boring._" Hinata looked down at her feet, a bit disappointed in herself for not being talkative. Seeing this, Ino immediately added, "But at least I have a girl here with me. I'd probably have died with the bowtruckles for the fun of it." Hinata smiled, maybe being here for a year would do her good.

"D-do any of y-you know w-what time it is?" Hinata asked.

"I'd say it's about three in the afternoon now," Shino calculated. "If we keep moving without stopping, we'll probably be out by four." They fell into a silence and continued the trip.

"Am I the only one a bit curious about that roar we heard in the distance?" Ino asked as they finally made it out of the forest.

"We're gonna check it out sometime, Ino," Sasuke said, "But I want most of the shinobi there when we go to find it. Especially after that comment you made..." Ino huffed.

"It was a joke!"

"A bad joke." Ino scowled a turned away from the boy. Sasuke ignored his fangirl's displeasure. "I'm guessing that we're meeting at the same time as usual for dinner, so I assume you can do whatever you want until then." With that, the group went their separate ways.

—

_Language Change_

Jordan, Fred, George, Kiba, and Naruto all shook hands while wearing equal mischievous smiles.

"Kiba, Naruto, I've got to say, this is going to be our greatest prank _ever,_" Fred said.

"Undoubtedly, we wouldn't have been able to do this without your help," George added.

"You and us together, noone in Hogwarts will stand a chance!" Lee exclaimed. Kiba and Naruto jokingly bowed.

"It is our pleasure. Should we meet up tomorrow to put the final stages onto paper?" Kiba asked.

"That sounds perfect."

Oh the horrors Hogwarts would go through in the next nine months.

—

The group sat around a table in the Slytherin common room discussing the day.

"You found a car," Sakura stated disbelievingly. Ino nodded vigorously. "That's it, we're going to start taking bets. Five Galleons on finding a moving blender." The group stared at the money she had put on the table.

"Where'd you get wizard's money Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked. She shrugged.

"It was at the bottom of my trunk. The one that Dumbledore gave us. He left a note with it that says it's for Hogsmeade. Apparently they go to this nearby town on select weekend."

"I bet that's our payment for being here for the year," Ino muttered.

"Cheapsake Tsunade-sama," Kiba agreed. The others laughed.

"So what about Fred and George?" Shino asked, bringing the topic back to seriousness. Naruto and Kiba grinned.

"This will definitely be the greatest prank in the history of pranks." A few people shuddered and then thanked Kami that they weren't the victims of said prank. "We spent all day working on it and we still need to work out the kinks, hopefully we can do that tomorrow." Sasuke frowned.

"I was hoping to have everyone go into Forbidden Forest. We need to get a basic shape of the Forest, as well as an estimate of how big it really is."

"W-well, we need a-at least a f-few ninja here at all t-times. T-to protect H-Harry-kun," Hinata mumbled.

"I agree, Kiba and Naruto can stay here for the day while we do our investigation of the Forest. Out of curiosity, why exactly do you want all of us to investigate, Sasuke-kun?"

"There's something very large in the forest," the boy explained, "It's deep in the forest and since it appears animalistic, I'm certain that it would be able to sense us. If it feels threatened, it may attack."

"Ah damn, why do I always miss the cool things. I want to take on a magical monster!" Naruto cried. Several of the Slytherins sent glares his way, which he promptly ignored.

"So first thing in the morning, we go running around the forest? What a wonderful morning exercise," Tenten moaned, "I thought I left this behind with Lee and Gai-sensei." Realization dawned upon Naruto and he did a 180 with his emotions.

"So this means me and Kiba can sleep in? YES!" Kiba, who was disappointed about not joining his friends, couldn't help but smile at this revelation. He and Naruto high-fived. Sakura and Ino rolled their eyes at the act.

"So did you complete what you were asked to do, Sakura, Tenten?" Ino asked. Both of then nodded.

"I've got the entire project lined up. I've got what everyone needs to do all ready. We can start it anytime." She paused before adding, "Also, I've made friends with Granger-san. Since she seems to be the brains of the trio, she'll probably convince Harry and Ron to trust us too."

"Ah damn, you had a much more productive day then I did," Tenten muttered. "I studied Quidditch and with Dumbledore's permission, we're gonna start trained Friday of next week with the Gryffindors." She stopped and as an afterthought added, "Oh, and we're not gonna have a teacher, I figured since we have the advantage of physical attributes, we should handicap ourselves."

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Kiba said, "Either way, we're gonna win. So who's on the team?" She blinked and tried to remember her mental list.

"Hinata's the seeker. She has to find a small snitch that's very fast. Sasuke's the keeper, with his Sharingan, he can percept if someone's gonna make a goal or not. Naruto and Kiba are gonna be the beaters. Naruto's got fast healing and if he's hit by a bludger, then he can just fix himself right up. Plus I have a feeling he would like to hit things with a bat." Naruto cheered and her suspicions were confirmed. "Same goes for Kiba, minus the fast healing. Sakura, Ino, and myself are going to be chasers. Sakura and Ino are good friends, minus the rivalry for Sasuke-kun, and I know we work together well."

"Huh? When'd you guys work together?" Naruto asked.

"Remember that month where all the Chunnin Exam participants had to go train? That left most of the teams uneven and we set up our own little team together. It was Sakura, Ino, Chouji, myself, and Kiba. We even got our own C-Class mission together. Remember that?"

"Ugh, how could I forget?" Ino mumbled, "That kid was a fucking brat. I don't care how pretty he thought I was, I wanted to throw him down that damn cliff!"

"Ah, Ino-chan, he was just trying to be nice!"

"That doesn't mean I don't want to throw in the river!"

"Don't you mean cliff?"

"Whatever." A few shinobi laughed.

"Ah right, back on topic. Shino is going to be an important part of the team. He's going to spy on the other teams and then tell us about their teamwork and just about everything about the team. He's also going to be the backup in case one of us is injured and can't play." Shino raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't that an unfair advantage on the other teams?"

"Nah, while we know everything about them, we'll only know the bare basics of flight." She smirked. "Plus when we beat them into the ground, they'll work twice as hard to defeat us. Improving Hogwarts, one Quidditch game at a time!" She pumped her fist into the air with the last cheer.

"Out of interest, why are we training with the Gryffindors then?" Sakura asked.

"Dumbledore's convinced we'd die if we practiced alone. I also think he thinks we'd become better friends with Harry if we showed an interest in the game. I know for a fact that Ron loves the game. I'm certain Harry's no different."

"Do we have to buy our own brooms?"

"Nah, we're using the schools. I can only imagine how crappy they are. Maybe we could bribe the other houses to lend us brooms when we're going up against someone..." She pondered this possibility as a timid first year came up to their table.

"_Uh, uhm_," the girl stuttered nervously, "_I-it's a-almost tim-time to g-go t-to bed. M-maybe y-y-you should go b-back to you-your com-common rooms?_" The ninja's eyes softened at the shy little girl.

"_Alright, we'll be out soon._" Tenten switched languages, "We should get going. See most of you tomorrow in the forest!"

"_Hai!_" The shinobi jumped away from the table with amazing speed. They latched themselves onto walls and onto the ceilings for the most effective path out of the common room.

...Alright, they just liked to freak out the students.

Within twenty minutes of leaving, most of them were asleep and ready for a new day.

—

_Language Change_

Harry stared at the fire in the Gryffindor common room. In it, was his godfather's head.

"Sirius?" He questioned. Hermione and Ron's heads whipped towards the direction of the fire. The head smiled.

"I was starting to think you'd go to bed before everyone else disappeared. I've been checking every hour." Hermione scowled.

"What if you had been seen?! That's a huge risk to take, Sirius." He pondered this risk.

"I think a girl – probably a first year – got a glimpse of me. But don't worry, I was gone right as she went to double check. I'll bet she thought I was an oddly shaped log or something. Anyway, I came to respond to Harry's letter, if I didn't do it this way, I'd have to resort to a code. And codes can be broken." At the mention of a letter, Ron and Hermione both turned to stare at him.

"You didn't say you wrote to Sirius!" Hermione said accusingly.

"I forgot," Harry replied truthfully, noting Hermione's look, he continued, "Don't look at me like that, Hermione, there's no way anyone would've gotten secret information out of it, right Sirius?"

"No, it was very good," said Sirius, smiling, "Anyway, we'd better be quick, just in case – your scar."

"What about–?" Ron began, but Hermione quickly said, "We'll tell you afterwards, go on, Sirius."

"Well, I know it can't be fun when it hurts, but we don't think it's anything to really worry about. It kept aching all year last year, didn't it?"

"Yeah, and Dumbledore said it happened wherever Voldemort was feeling a powerful emotion. So maybe he was just, I dunno, really angry or something the night I had that detention."

"Well, now he's back, it's bound to hurt more often," said Sirius.

"So you don't think it had anything to do with Umbridge touching me when I was in detention with her?" Harry asked.

"I double it. I know her be reputation and I'm sure she's no Death Eater–"

"She's foul enough to be one," Harry said darkly.

"Yes, but the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. I know she's a nasty piece of work — you should hear Remus talk about her. She drafted a bit of anti-werewolf legislation two years ago that makes it almost impossible for him to get a job." Sirius noted their angry looks and changed the subject, "So what are Umbridge's lesson's like? Is she training you to kill all half-breeds?"

"No, she's not letting us use magic at all!"

"Ah, there's something else," Hermione quickly interjected, "it seems like the ninja are working for Umbridge secretly. She asks them all the time to do errands for her." Sirius' eyes widened.

"I know she's not very pleasant, but _noone _deserves that." Harry blinked.

"What do you mean?"

"When Dumbledore first found the ninja's village, he returned to the Order with news that these ninjas were going to go to Hogwarts for a school year. He told us the only way to get them to go to Hogwarts was by employing them. They are under the direct command of Dumbledore. He made a few more trips to learn more about them – hopefully to get them on our side – and one of the things he learned is that they are bound by their employee. To betray them is to become a rouge ninja and to be taken out by the villages best. Anyone who threatens this is subject to torture, or in worst case scenario, being killed." Hermione's hand covered her mouth in shock.

"But they're only twelve!"

"They learn to murder at the age of eight. Possibly younger, depending on the parents."

"So they're going to kill her?" Ron asked. "Or torture her?"

"These ninjas are manipulative by nature. My guess is that they don't see her as a real threat, and instead are just messing around with her. If I were you, I would try to become allies with them." Nearby, they could hear the portrait opening and closing. Sirius didn't have time to Floo away as Naruto and Sakura bounced up to him.

"Woah! His head's in the fire!" Naruto commented a bit too loudly, "he's not even scorched!"

"Of course Naruto, they use spells for everything. I'm sure a not-burning-in-a-fire spell is available. It's a bit silly though."

"Hey, aren't you the guy that showed us the library at that house we stayed at for a week?"

"Yes, and I should probably get go–"

"Hey, the fire is green. Are you guys Slytherins in disguise?" The trio rolled their eyes and Sirius glared at the two. It was a known fact that the shinobi loved to poke fun at the Slytherin/Gryffindor rivalry by comparing them all the time.

"Gryffindors are nothing like Slytherins!" Sirius said. Naruto and Sakura looked over the head a few times before shaking their heads.

"Denial."

"Definitely." Sirius scowled deeply before disappearing in a flurry of ash and fire.

"Well that was interesting. Let's go to bed Sakura-chan." The two calmly walked up the staircases and into the dorms.

"What just happened?" Ron asked, feeling a bit confused.

"I don't think we have to worry one bit about them," Hermione said.

"Agreed."

**End of Chapter**

—

**Explanation**

This is the chapter that sets _everything_ up for the rest of the fic. If I can do all this, I'm a genius with an amazing story. If I can't, it all goes down the drain. I _will _complete this fic, and it _will _be amazing. I'm absolutely certain!

Jordan Lee - He is always left out of fics! In the first book, it states that Lee is one of Fred and Georges friends. I can bet he's helped out in many pranks too.

Oiroke no Jutsu - Or the famous, Sexy No Jutsu. Every Naruto fanfic has to have this at some point. _Every one._

Umbridge's Song - Best. Song. Ever. I came up with it at the top of my head and I love it.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter**

Alright, by the time I update next, school will have started for me. At the moment, I have no idea how this will effect my updating schedule. Hopefully, I'll be able to write at least a page a day for each chapter. I'm taking Honors English, Math, and Science. Based on stories my friends have told, it'll probably eat up a lot of time.

"_Yadayada_" - Foreign language at the time. Or Emphasis.

**Chapter 6**

The trip to get to Las Vegas was truly an adventure. The Sound Ninja did make it pass everything almost smoothly. The genjutsu trick worked better than anticipated and they gained three hundred dollars in English currency from the change. Hopefully the airline wouldn't notice a six hundred dollar profit loss until much later.

Preferably when they were out of the country.

Security was a bit of a problem when Tayuya forgot to take the metal coins out of her pocket. The resulting noise almost caused her to latch to the ceiling. Security was a bit surprised when the girl jumped five feet in the air (It is to be noted that Sakon was laughing his ass off during it all). After a bit of explaining (and possibly bribing), she went through.

The wait for the airplane was annoying, even for usually patient ninja. Boarding was just as bad. Only one of the ninja knew what was being said and quite a bit of chaos followed finding seats. Apparently the airline didn't assign seats and most of them were separated. Kabuto and Orochimaru ended up siting next to each other and the flight attendants were quite pleased with his polite demeanor.

Which is more then can be said for the Sound Four.

But for the sake of Orochimaru's sanity, let's just forget about it.

The airplane landed and since they didn't check any luggage, they stepped right out into the Las Vegas air. "Does a city really need all these lights?" Kidomaru questioned, quite a bit curious about this world.

"Probably not, this is probably a town that tries to grab attention," Kabuto said, "you're the one that studied the cities on this continent, what do you know about this place?" Kidomaru leaned against the nearest wall and recalled the small paragraph he read on the city.

"Well, this city is a major gambling city. Most of the larger buildings are in fact casinos."

"Kabuto!" Orochimaru said suddenly, interrupting Kidomaru. "Find a way to send Tsunade here."

Kidomaru continued, "It is the most profitable city within the district Nay-vah-dah. There wasn't much else about this city. I say we search for Sasuke's chakra and then get on another plane to the next city."

"Very good. Tayuya, Jirobo, Kabuto, Sakon, do a chakra sweep for Sasuke-kun."

"What should I do, Orochimaru-sama?" Kidomaru asked.

"Find the next city for us to go to." Kidomaru murmured a 'understood,' before opening his book and dictionary. Orochimaru left the group for a moment to take in the area. As much as you weren't going to get him to say it, he really _was _impressed by this city. The lights, the blinking, the scantily clad women, you don't find that shit in the Elemental Countries.

Okay, so you saw the scantily clad women. But scantily clad women that _weren't _kunoichi.

"_Heya big boy,_" a womanly voice spoke from behind him. Orochimaru casually shifted his gaze towards her. The woman blinked, obviously not expecting what she saw. Either way she continued, "_What you say to getting together tonight, just you and I?_" She failed to mention how much she charged.

"I don't speak your language," he said plainly. The woman looked a bit taken back. Huh, she never had a language problem before. Orochimaru used her surprise to take in her looks. Her curly blonde hair was loosely done in a ponytail with the bangs of her hair framing her slim face. She wore a black tube top that didn't cover nearly enough skin, black bracelets and a black choker complimented the top. Underneath a pink skirt that didn't even cover half her ass were black tights that went down to mid-thigh. Her boots reached all the way up to her knees and pink shoelaces matched the skirt.

In other words she was very boring. Hell, his old student, Anko was ten times more sexy then that.

He frowned a bit at the memory of Anko. The girl never seemed to like his fashions. Honestly, a bow was much more appealing than a trench coat.

...Right?

"_You're in America. Learn English, bastard._" With that, the prostitute walked away from a faintly confused snake-sannin.

—

"Sasuke's not here either," Tayuya reported. Orochimaru scowled and faced Kidomaru.

"Well, we have quite a few options. We could go back to Cah-ley-fohrn-yah and go to Sah-crah-mayn-toh. Or we could go to Phe-yoh-nex in Ah-ri-zoh-nya, which is south of Nay-vah-dah. We could head east to Sahlt Lahk Ceety in U-tah. Or southeast to Ahl-ah-ah...a city in Nayw May-c-koh. Next are all in the large district of Tayx-as. First, Dahl-as. Second, Sahn Ahn-toh-ne-oh. Third, Awh-stohn. Or we could just skip all of that and go halfway across the country to Chi-cah-go in Eh-lee-noys."

"My god, they come up with the most confusing names I've ever heard," Sakon commented. Kidomaru agreed.

"We are going to Phe-yoh-nex," Orochimaru concluded suddenly, "After which we'll go to Sahlt Lahk Ceety."

"Uh, before we go to Phe-yoh-nex, what are the chances we can get a hotel room? We've been in this country for four days and we've only gotten semi-decent rest in a park tree and on the airplane. I've still got a crick in my neck from the airplane. Shinobi or not, if I'm not rested well, the genjutsu may not work well."

"We must find Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru hissed, causing Tayuya to flinch.

"Orochimaru-sama, she does have a point," Jirobo pointed out, "You still have a month to find him. I'm certain in that month we'll have searched all of the country." Orochimaru knew his words made sense, but was reluctant to admit defeat. He resisted biting his lip and opted to scowl instead.

"Fine," he spat out, "We'll find a hotel."

_Sacramento, California. Phoenix, Arizona. Salt Lake City, Utah. New Mexico. San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Texas._

—

The Sound Ninja sat content in their rented hotel room (minus Orochimaru who glaring out the window.) The door to the bathroom opened and a refreshed looking Tayuya walked out with a towel in her hair.

Hey, she may be a kunoichi, but that didn't make her any less of a girl.

"Oh man, greatest idea yet," she said with a contented smile, "This world has the best hotels I've seen ever. You don't find this kind of stuff in the Countries." She looked over the room; Kabuto was still learning English through a book, Kidomaru was studying geography, Orochimaru was glaring at the window, and Sakon was watching some sort of English program on the TV.

"Shouldn't you be doing something Sakon?" she asked. He shook his head.

"Nah, they're doin' all the important crap, I don't think we have anything else to do." Tayuya took a seat in a nearby armchair.

"What's going on?" she asked, referring to the television.

"I have absolutely no clue. But it looks like they're auditioning for something. They also seem to be singing, but sometimes it's hard to tell." He shrugged and watched the commercial for cell phones that had just come on.

"So, who's sleeping on the beds tonight?" she said off-handedly.

—

In the end, Orochimaru got a bed to himself and Kabuto and Sakon ended up sharing a bed (the yaoi fangirl in Tayuya was rolling around on her mental floor squealing), while she, Kidomaru, and Jirobo slept on the floor. While not the most comfortable place in the world, it was much better then the ususal concrete, dirt, and asphalt.

Needless to say it was a very nice night of sleep.

Sadly, the next day, they checked out and left the comfortable hotel to get on the soonest flight to Phoenix. While against Orochimaru's wishes, they ended up staying a day in another hotel. As the days went on, they continued their search for Sasuke. From city to city, state to state, no sign of the boy was found. Kabuto had mastered the language by now and Orochimaru wasn't far behind. The Sound Four were just learning the basics and ALL of them could now do the money genjutsu.

Oh, and they got very used to flying on an airplane.

As the plane landed at the airport in Chicago, Orochimaru felt the first breadth of hopelessness. They had traveled to most of the states (which was apparently what they called the 'districts') capitals along with other major cities. Still, not even a minor blip on the Chakra Radar. They had spent three weeks in this country so far, and if Kabuto was correct, there was only one more week left until Sasuke was out of his reach forever.

—

The Shinobi soon learned that the lessons got very old, very fast. No matter how interesting magic was in general, there was _always _a way to make it uninteresting. In just a few weeks, they learned that Naruto's charge was even stupider then him, flying on brooms was _painful,_ and that Hermione was still suspicious despite the truce. Apparently being forced to be Umbridge's lapdog was enough to convince her that her prediction was right and they were there to get to Harry. The genin also learned that a small village was near the school and that in the approaching weekend, all students third year and above were allowed to go, this included them.

As the weeks went on, subtle changes started among the ninja, for example, Sasuke was coming out of his isolated shell. He had began to make jokes, laugh, and even smile a bit. Hinata, like Sasuke, was changing for the better; rather then being timid and shy most of the time, she was laughing louder and smiling like she never did in Konoha. Even her stutter was slowly disappearing.

As the third week began, all of them couldn't help but feel they had forgotten something. It had started right after the early morning training.

"Hey guys, wasn't something important suppose to happen?" Naruto asked as he slurped a bit of his cereal.

"Oddly enough, I agree with Naruto. I feel like we forgot something." They all shrugged and continued to eat breakfast slowly.

"...Is it just me, or do I hear something in the distance?" They looked at the doors of the Great Hall and tensed. Was something interesting actually going to happen?

"_DYNAMIC ENTRY_!" A voice roared.

"_DYNAMIC ENTRY TIMES TWO_!" All students were now looking for the source of the voice. As two people jumped through the entrance and began posing, the students gaped in awe. Tenten however, looked quite cheerful. Ino was feeling quite the opposite.

"Oh hell no."

"Why him? Why not Asuma-sensei?!"

"_It seems that this dining room is filled with–_"

"_What Gai-sensei? What is this room filled with_?!"

"_It is filled with YOUTH_!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"_As much as I'd hate to interrupt the love-fest, I do believe we have some Shinobi to train_?" Sakura and Naruto grinned.

"Kakashi-sensei!" They chorused. Kakashi's eyes flickered up into a happy arc. Two other figures entered the Great Hall, one Hyuuga Neji and Kurenai-sensei. The Hyuuga arced an eyebrow.

"_What kind of hell do you have to go through to be wearing that_?" Tenten jumped from her table and sprinted to her team.

"Nejiiiii!" she yelled with tears of joy streaming down her cheeks. He blinked as she dragged both Lee and himself into a group hug. Lee eagerly returned the hug, Neji just stood confused.

"_It must be a pretty terrible place for you to greet Lee and I like that,_" he mused.

"_You have no idea,_" Sasuke muttered as the rest of the ninja approached the group. _"Two days into the official mission, we almost got expelled from the school_." Kurenai scowled and turned towards her team.

"_Kiba, what'd you do to cause that_?"

"_How did you know it was me?!_"

"_It's always you_." The others laughed.

"_This reunion has gone on long enough. We have only one day together and despite the hour of working-out we get, it's not nearly enough. We should get started as soon as possible_," Shino reasoned.

"_Shino-kun's right. Let us go into the forest and show the school our flames of YOUTH_!" Lee shouted. Gai grinned at his student.

"YOSH!" Gai yelled with enthusiasm. The two struck more poses before running out of the Great Hall. The others followed.

Back at the Gryffindor table Harry and Ron were staring at Hermione expectantly. "Well Hermione. You've been right about loads of things in the past, what's with the people that just showed up?"

The girl opened and closer her mouth a few times before finally shaking her head. "I have comprehended and studied many things before. But that has no explanation"

—

_Language Change_

"So Kakashi-sensei, what amazing powerful jutsu are we gonna learn today?!" Naruto asked enthusiastically. The aforementioned Shinobi smiled and ruffled his hair.

"We're not gonna teach you anything!" He chirped back. Naruto immediately looked downtrodden.

"If you're not going to teach us anything, then what was the point of even coming here?" Sasuke questioned.

"You'll find out in a moment." The masked Jounin turned his attention to the other ninja and waited for them to pay attention to him. It took awhile, but everyone had finally started paying attention. "Alright kids. What we are going to start is a massive survival exercise." Kakashi held up a finger. "Rule number one, you are not allowed to team up with anyone at all. Everyone is your enemy. Don't forget that." Another finger. "Rule number two, you cannot kill each other. It may be tempting. You can knock them out, but nothing else." Three fingers. "Rule number three, you can hide where ever. Inside, outside. This includes the Forbidden forest." Again. "Rule number four, don't injure students. Five, when you knock someone down, mark them with this!" Out of nowhere, he pulled out a bunch of marker in different colors. His students frowned.

"Kakashi-sensei, what about all those rules of teamwork you've always pushed down onto us?"

"There will be time when you are on a mission and you are separated from your team. There are enemy nin nearby and you're gonna have to do something. This is just training for that. Are the rules understood?"

"Wait," Kiba said, "we have just one rule to add. Absolutely no Henge no Jutsu." Seeing the sensei's confused faces, he quickly added, "We'll explain later. When are we ending this?"

"The moment the sun sets. Anyone conscious and unmarked has succeeded. Anyone unconscious is dead. And begin!" At that moment, all ten Shinobi jumped away, leaving the teachers by themselves.

"So Kurenai-chan, Gai, wanna go see what torture these kids go through everyday?"

"YOSH."

—

Sasuke jumped from branch to branch in the Forbidden Forest. In the past few weeks, they had gone into the forest many times. As a group, they had started documenting every creature they had encountered in the forest, as well as mapping the forest out. They predicted they had about one fifth of the entire forest covered.

Having gone at least a half mile into the forest, Sasuke stopped and sat on a branch to ponder who he should go after. Hinata would be a good choice, but he would probably feel guilty about it later. Heck, anyone going after her would.

Except maybe Neji.

Sasuke also knew that even if she was a shy girl, she could defend herself pretty well. Quite frankly, he didn't want his chakra cut off for the day. Neji wasn't a good option either.

Sakura or Ino would be a good idea, all he would have to do is pretend to hit on them and they'd be out like a light. There would be two problems with that. One, his Uchiha pride wouldn't stoop that low. Two, he had no clue where either of them would be.

His next option would have to be Kiba or Shino. Both of them would be an easy win. But if the spar several weeks ago proved anything, forgetting about the animals/bugs would result in a failure.

Lee was just a no. Sasuke may have the advantage of genjutsu and ninjutsu, Lee could kick his ass before he finished the first hand seal.

Tenten was also a no. While her main attacks consisted of just weapons, without an absolute defense, he was as good as dead.

Eliminating everyone else, Naruto was the only option left. Considering how well Sasuke knew the idiot, he was the best option. He knew most of his attacks and how to counter them. Not to mention he almost always won during spars. Sasuke smirked at the memories. Now all he had to do was find him, Naruto wasn't known as Konoha's number one unpredictable ninja for nothing.

"Knowing the dobe, he'd probably be hiding in plain sight," Sasuke said to himself. He chuckled but stopped himself suddenly. Of course! That's exactly what he'd do! Sasuke was too busy judging the time to be concerned he was starting to think like the boy. He looked up at the sun and estimated the time, "This should be our Care of Magical Creatures class..."

Sasuke swivelled his body so he faced northwest and he began his journey towards the class he was suppose to attend.

One fifteen minute trip through the canopy and Sasuke found himself standing on a branch directly above the class. He was amused to note that this was a class supervised by Umbridge. As quietly as possible, Sasuke took out two kunai and aimed directly for Naruto's head. He swung his wrist in one quick motion and the kunai zoomed in on the blond boy.

Many students screamed as the two weapons dug into Naruto's skull. Sasuke frowned, why didn't he dodge? It wasn't until the Kage Bunshin was dispersed and Sasuke felt a shuriken pierce his arm that he realized he was tricked. He jumped from his branch, as did Naruto.

"Well Dobe, I hate to say it, but you've gotten better." Naruto grinned. "But not good enough." Sasuke pounced the boy and they began a taijutsu battle. Students and teachers alike stood in awe as the two boys went at each other viciously. It wasn't until Umbridge got a hold of herself she realized that her subordinates were setting a terrible example.

"No, no, no! Stop!" she shrieked. The two males ignored her and threw punches towards each other. "STOP!" She waved her wand and with a quiet incantation, red light shot out and the boys narrowly avoided it. Umbridge watched in horror as Sasuke punched Naruto in _just _the right area and the boy fell down, not quite unconscious.

"I...can't move," Naruto eventually got out. His eyes flickered up to see Sasuke smirking over him, just a moment away from knocking him out with some sort of heavy object.

Idly, he wondered where and when the hell he got it.

Naruto winced, expecting the thing to make contact with his skull, but that never came. Sasuke stared down at the boy, in an _almost _pitying fashion. Sasuke sighed and put down it down. To Naruto's total shock, he held out his hand. He hesitated, thinking that it may be a trap.

"Just take the hand, Dobe," Sasuke said. Naruto, after discovering that he could indeed move now, was helped up by Sasuke.

This was _so _blackmail material.

But first he was going to figure out what possessed Sasuke to throw a win and help someone. Before he could ask, Sasuke was gone. Naruto created a Kage Bunshin and Henged it into him in his school uniform. He returned to his own hiding place above the class. The Kage Bunshin stared at the class confused. "Don't worry about what happened, just continue as usual."

—

Shino stood atop the Divination Tower, looking down on everyone. He concluded that this would be the best place to find the others, or at the very least, hide. It would be hard for anyone to spot him up here, yet he had a good view of most of the grounds. Sadly, most of the lesser towers blocked the view of certain areas. That was his disadvantage. Despite this, he stayed and used his bugs to scout the grounds.

Speaking of which, two of the aforementioned creatures landed on his outstretched finger, he analyzed the information easily. Sasuke and Naruto were already going at it, figured. Hinata was in one of the Dungeons, Neji was presumably lost in the school, and Lee was bouncing all over the school, far away from both Hyuuga. Sakura was near Hagrid's hut, not too deep in the forest, Tenten was very close to engaging in a fight with Sakura and Ino was on a tower.

Oh, and their sensei were being lazy asses and exploring the castle in a concealment jutsu.

Bastards.

But that wasn't his concern at the moment, Ino had a similar idea as him and it was very likely she knew exactly where he was. If not, then he wanted to find her first. Using the information his bugs gave him, he gave a chakra-enhanced leap to the next tower. Using his bugs instructions, he began a stealthy hunt for the Yamanaka.

Shino latched himself to the side of the tower the Ino was standing on. He knew that Ino wasn't much a taijutsu figher, nor was she a genjutsu type. Though she very likely had the potential to be. Another fact he knew about her was her inability to work well alone. So of course, Shino did the smart thing and take the girl by surprise. She was out via chakra exhaustion in seconds.

Shino continued to scale the tower and to his pleasure, he saw the girl passed out, but otherwise unarms. His kikai bugs retreated towards his body again and he took the marker that Kakashi-sensei had given him. He leaned over her and with a satisfied smirk, he wrote his name on her forehead. With that, he moved her body into the room under the tower. He was certain she'd attempt to kill him if she woke up badly burned and her perfect skin tanned.

As easy as it was for him to take her out, he did NOT want her wrath constantly focused on him.

The boy jumped from the tower and he made his way back to the Divination Tower. One for Shino, zero for Ino.

—

Plainly put, Neji was hopelessly lost.

The boy turned the corner into another corridor where several seventh years were chatting in the corner about something or another. Silently he cursed Dumbledore for not giving him a translation charm. He tried to pass the girls in the corner, but to his misfortune, they stopped him in his tracks.

Damn fangirls.

"_Oh my god, who are you_?"

"_Are you related to that Slytherin girl_?"

"_Of course he is. They have the same eyes!_"

"Uh uh, no hablo English?" Neji said nervously. That was English...right? For whatever reason, the girls burst out laughing.

"_He's so _kawaii _when confused!_" a blonde girl squealed. Wait, kawaii? They did speak Japanese? _Were they playing him?_

"You speak Japanese?" Neji questioned. Judging by the girl's confused looks, they didn't and just used a random word in their speech. Damn it, that just made things harder. He tried to slink away from the girls, but to no degree he progressed. Whenever he tried to move, a girl would cling to his arm and he'd be forced to stay in place.

Son of a bitch, he couldn't hit an innocent civilian!

To his horror, he observed that they were all in different groups, judging by their badges. Which meant at least one would stay with him at all times.

Ah shit, he was NOT going to live this down.

—

Sakura narrowly dodged a barrage of kunai. When her teammates said she had deadly accuracy, they weren't kidding. Tenten had been throwing weapons towards her for the last ten minutes and the pink-haired girl couldn't even get close to her to land a hit. Arg, she needed to learn the chakra strings jutsu. She had enough chakra control to be able to do it, so why not?

The girl jumped from her location a tree branch to the top of the gamekeepers hut. She used the hut as a shield from the various sharp objects that were now impaling the poor house. She thanked the heavens for it being abandoned. She wouldn't want to explain to the owner why all the windows were broken.

Sakura took a deep breath and weighed her options. She knew the only way to land a hit on the kunoichi was to sneak up on her from behind. How would she manage that? She didn't have Kage Bunshin to distract her, nor did she know any tunneling jutsu. She didn't know any good genjutsu, and most Shinobi could see past a regular Bunshin.

Ah damn, the odds were against her. Why on Earth did Tenten feel the need to confront her of all people? But there was no way she was going to quit. She didn't want to admit to herself that she was useless against a fellow kunoichi. If only she knew that chakra strings jutsu, it would result in a moment of confusion and then she could use Tenten's own pride and joy against her!

The more that she thought about it, the Chakra Strings attack was nothing more then concentrated chakra. With her chakra control, she should be able to do it with very little problems.

Ignoring the fact that she'd be learning it in the heat of battle. Sakura dodged another barrage of katana, kunai, shuriken, and other objects she couldn't identify. She dived behind the unusually large pumpkins. In a moment she concentrated chakra to her fingers, and extended the chakra to beyond her fingers. To her satisfaction, the chakra attached itself to the nearest pumpkin.

Sakura blinked and smiled, now she would just have to do it in battle. She jumped and avoided another shower of sharp objects. Well, it was all or nothing. She stood on top of a particularly massive pumpkin and concentrated her chakra to her fingers, much like before, the chakra strings slowly began to form. To her, the formation was painfully slow, but after a few seconds, she felt them attach to something. In a quick fluid motion, she threw them at Tenten.

Huh, two of those things were pumpkins, who knew?

The weapons kunoichi was not expecting this, and she quickly switched to defense. Sakura, took advantage of her split-second confusion and rushed to engage in a taijutsu only battle. Tenten aimed a punch at Sakura's forehead which the girl ducked to avoid. Sakura attempted an under-sweep and this gave Tenten the opportunity to jump and use the girl's head to flip over her.

The pink-haired kunoichi did not expect this and stood there for a split second too long. Tenten hit the back of her neck, knocking her out. Tenten breathed a sigh of relief. Honestly, she wasn't expecting Sakura to make such a good fight out of it, not to mention she had managed to pick up the Chakra Strings Jutsu.

Sakura certainly had quite a bit of potential. Maybe she could help bring that talent out? Tenten nodded and took the marker out from her pouch. Quickly she wrote her name on the girls hand.

Now to seal all those weapons up again.

—

Lee could very rarely decline a challenge. There were very few times in his life that something would distract him enough to forget about the challenge and make him just _stare._

_Hogwarts_ was one of those things.

Moving paintings, the sky in the Great Hall, and ghosts! It was both amazing and frightening. For the third time that day, he entered the large corridor that lead to the Great Hall with awe. He didn't want to admit it (because it was unyouthful) but he was a bit jealous of Tenten. She got to spend the school year here, in this amazing place.

He took a deep breath and grinned at the smell of foreign food. Such a cultural place, but unfortunately, it wasn't his place to go in and taste the delectable foodstuffs. He moved on, not realizing he just avoided a fight with Naruto (who was currently dining in the Great Hall). He moved along the school walls, until he found himself hopefully lost on one of the staircases. He moved from staircase to staircase, level to level. When he finally reached the third floor, he took a few steps before the staircase _began to move._

Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast watched in total wonder as the stairs moved from one place to another on it's own accord. When the confused staircase finally stopped, he heard a voice from behind him.

"Hello, it seems the staircases are a bit antsy today, but don't mind them, you will eventually get to where you wish to go." Lee blinked and turned around, only to be faced with a pale, blonde, pale-eyed girl. The girl tilted her head and glanced at his headband. "Oh! You're with Tenten and Kiba? Nice people they are, very odd though. Do you speak English?" Lee scratched his head in confusion. The girl took out her wand and said something very softly. Lee felt a warm sensation go through his body and in a second it was gone.

"Is that better?" she asked. Lee blinked, ...what? Underneath the two, the staircase shook. "Oh! I think the staircase wishes us off. It wouldn't be a very good thing to anger a staircase, they have the tendency to drop."

Dropping...staircases?

The girl grabbed him by the wrist and pulled the dazed Lee off the stairs and into the corridor. Lee didn't even notice where he was until the girl stopped.

"Here we are!" she said brightly. Lee looked around, blue wallpaper adorned the walls and many bookcases lined the corners. He noticed random statues situated decoratively on tables, against the walls, and on bookshelves.

"Such a youthful place!" Lee cried. The girl covered her hand in shock.

"Oh dear, you do speak! I suppose I won't have to cure you after all. So what is your name?" The girl asked.

"I'm Rock Lee! Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast!" She smiled and waved.

"Hello Rock, I'm Luna. Luna Lovegood."

—

Kakashi did appreciate the arts. Really he did. He appreciated paintings, armor, and the entire castle like nothing else! It's just...It's just...

He appreciated Icha Icha more.

"Will you put that _STUPID _book down!?" Kurenai yelled as she made a grab for his book. Effectively he dodged it and turned the page, needless to say, he continued reading.

"Ah, but the amazing Icha Icha is enough to keep me going for hours!" Kurenai didn't even want to retort to that.

"KAKASHI! MY ETERNAL RIVAL, IT IS VERY UNYOUTHFUL TO READ SUCH A DEGRADING BOOK IN THE PRESENCE OF A LADY. I MUST REQUEST YOU PUT IT DOWN."

"Did you say something?" Gai fell to the floor, defeated expression on his face. Kakashi smiled and went back to his porn. Next to them, they heard a door creak and the shortest man any of them had ever seen walked out.

"Hello good sirs and madam! I heard you from inside my classroom and I decided to sneak a peak and see what all the ruckus was about! So you must be the teachers of the foreign students! I'm Flitwick, the charms teacher!" The three sensei blinked.

"You speak our language?" He shook his head.

"Nope! Dumbledore gave us the charm in case you came to us in need of help. All the teachers have on placed on them. It's probably going to wear off in a few hours though, excuse me if I suddenly begin speaking a mix between the two languages."

"Weird," Kurenai muttered, momentarily forgetting about the book Kakashi was still reading. "So...if you're a teacher here, shouldn't you be teaching now?"

"Oh no, no, no, I have break now. I'll have to lecture some second years in about an hour. What about your students? Don't you have only a day here?" Flitwick asked, genuinely curious. Kakashi giggled and Flitwick raised an eyebrow.

"We do, but we've got our students on a day long exercise. So how are our students doing in your class? I certainly hope they're living up to both your expectations and mine."

"TENTEN'S YOUTHFULNESS TELLS ME SHE IS DOING HER WORK EXCELLENTLY!" Gai shouted to the ceiling. Flitwick, surprised by the yelling, fell back and tripped over his own feet. Kurenai gasped and helped the wizard up.

"Ah thank you, madam." He brushed himself off and looked up at the teachers. "Ah well, follow me into my room and I can tell you how they are doing, if you will." The short male scurried to his room with a surprisingly tall doorknob. The three watched with questioning looks as he opened the door via magic. Not wanting to seem rude, they followed him in. He had a clipboard in hand as he looked through the fifth year grades.

"Let's see, starting with Tenten. She grasps concepts quickly and is excellent in charms. She doesn't do very well with schoolwork, often turning in just barely completed." Pseudo tears ran down Gai's face.

"Tenten isn't doing her best! I must encourage her to work harder! YOSH!" Flitwick flinched, but didn't comment. He looked down the list and continued to read his notes aloud for the Japanese teachers. He noted how whenever one of the students got a terrible grade, one of the teachers would appear very disappointed. He really hoped the ninja would improve with time, he didn't like it when children disappointed people that cared about them.

"Well, their grades are probably due to their inexperience with magic, I'm certain with time their grades will improve." He placed the clipboard back in his desk and smiled at the teachers.

"Ah, thank you for telling us about our student's progress." Flitwick looked up and noted an almost evil looking smirk on Kurenai and possibly Kakashi (he really couldn't tell). "By the end of today, they'll stop the laziness." Flitwick resolved not to ask about their questionable motivational methods.

—

"Hmm, where are they? You don't think they killed each other, do you?" Kakashi asked casually.

"Nah, their too cute and innocent to kill each other," Kurenai reassured. Kakashi hned and went back to his book. How the man could read so slowly was a mystery to Kurenai and most of Konoha. She was certain he had been on the same page for the last hour or so. She looked off into the distance and blinked, wasn't that Naruto limping towards them?

...Yes it was.

"So who got you?" Kakashi asked, without even looking up. Naruto scowled darkly.

"Nothing got me. I just happened to be too close to Neville when his potion exploded. Who knew the boy could mix such powerful explosives?" Kakashi chuckled and rubbed his students head fondly.

"We're gonna have to work on evasion sometime. So did you get anyone?"

"Nah, I thought my method of hiding in plain sight would've attracted some attention. Somehow I managed to blend in very well."

"TENTEN, I SEE YOU HAVE FARED WELL TODAY!" Gai shouted suddenly. The aforementioned girl jumped from the second story window easily with a smirk.

"Yep, I got Sakura too. But don't worry Kakashi, she doesn't have anything pointy sticking out of her." Tenten took out her scroll and patted it. "Everything's accounted for. It really was a pain to clean up though." From behind them, Shino appeared with Ino in his shoulder. Kurenai took the girl and placed her gently on the ground.

"It's nothing more then Chakra exhaustion. She will be up in no less than a half hour," Shino explained. Lee walked out of a regular door, obviously excited.

"WHAT IS IT, MY YOUTHFUL STUDENT, THAT HAS MADE YOU SO HAPPY!?" Gai shouted. Lee grinned and ran towards his sensei; embracing him in a hug. Pseudo tears running down is face.

"GAI-SENSEI!" They broke apart and Lee's grin widened. "I meet the most youthful young woman today! She can't use Chakra, just like me! She taught me about this world's wonderful magical creatures!" Gai frowned.

"But Lee! You were to follow the exercise!" Gai exclaimed. Lee fell to the ground.

"To make up for my mistake, I shall do five thousand push ups! If I fail that, I shall do one thousand laps around Konoha!" Lee cried. He began his push-ups, with Gai cheering him on. The others sweat dropped.

Kiba and Akamaru leapt from the forest with a grin. Both of them carrying what appeared to be some sort of small creature. The two ran towards the group and Kiba held up his prize. "I found a chicken in the forest. Since we skipped lunch, we thought it'd be nice for Akamaru and I to eat, but we realized just now that we had to come here."

"Ew! Why didn't you leave it there?" Naruto asked.

"Well, it would've been such a waste. Who wants chicken tonight?!"

"Ah, that's a good idea Kiba. We wouldn't want you to get _too _comfortable here," Kakashi said with an evil glint in his eye. Lee sighed, he really wanted to taste foreign food too! The genin sat down on a nearby wall and waited for the others.

They weren't sitting down for very long.

"Ugh, that was painful," Sakura complained, "Tenten, couldn't you have at least put me on the chair inside the hut?" Tenten shrugged

"Either way you'd probably still end up being sore." Sakura scowled and massaged her neck. She looked over at the newly arrived Neji and scowled. "What's your problem?"

"I-I don't w-want to talk ab-about it," Neji stuttered. The ninja's eyebrows shot to their hairlines. Neji? _Stuttering?!_ _WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?! _

"It seems the great Hyuuga clan isn't a great as they are made out to be," Sasuke sneered. Hinata avoided his eyes as best as she could. Neji just scowled.

"As if you can talk, _Uchiha_, If we fought at this very moment, your head would be eating dirt within seconds."

"Is that a challenge?" Sasuke smirked and got into his taijutsu position, Neji did the same. However, before the two could go at it, Kakashi stepped in the middle.

"It's over you two. You can have your lover's spat next time we meet." The two boys scowled at the silver-haired sensei but reluctantly stood down. "That's better!" With his one eye, he scanned the area. "Alright, I think everyone's here now. Let's have some dinner, shall we!"

—

"I wonder why Kurenai-sensei carries spices around with her," Naruto muttered to noone in particular, "But man, I'm glad she does."

"Sensei prides herself in being prepared for anything," Shino responded. Naruto jumped, having not expected the boy to say anything. "Her dress is for more than show. Not only do the designs confuse enemies if she moves fast, but she seals things in it."

"Woah, cool!"

"Kurenai-sensei, Kakashi-sensei, when do you have to leave?" Sakura asked kindly, "We have many things to tell you." Kakashi's exposed eyes rolled up, trying to recall the time Dumbledore gave him.

"About nine or so."

"Ah good, we've got about two hours. Sit down and listen, because this is critical," Sakura said with dead seriousness. Kakashi raised an eyebrow, what could've possibly happened? She took a deep breath, and explained everything. The sensei noted during the explanation, all activity between their students stopped, they quieted down and listened, occasionally adding their own comments. Kakashi looked towards the kids when she finished.

"That's an incredibly stupid move on your part. By agreeing, you can technically be considered missing-nin," Kakashi scolded. At least they had the right idea to look shameful. "If you were anyone else, I would report this to Tsunade-sama the moment I got back." He leaned back. "What concerns me most is her eagerness to get to you. She knows your power, even if you are 'barbarians.'" Kakashi chuckled. Haha barbarians. "I fear she may revolt against the headmaster. If she attempts to use you, I want you to incapacitate her. Kill her if worst comes to worst."

Kurenai glared at her irresponsible students, she noted with an inner smirk that they flinched. "If there is a revolt, we need a way to communicate with you. Any suggestions?" The genin look at each other and shrugged. What _could _they do?

"Uh, I can summon toads. If I give a message to one of them, think they could give it to Ero-sennin?" Naruto said.

"That sounds good, Naruto-kun," Gai said, unusually serious.

"One problem, we have to go on a manhunt now to tell him that you may send a message to him at one point."

"Manhunt?" Ino asked. Kurenai scowled.

"He's on one of his 'research' trips."

"How's that a manhunt? All you have to do is search the bath houses," Naruto said. Kakashi perked up at this and a vein twitched in Naruto's forehead. Stupid perverts...

"Since you don't seem to have that much time left before you have to go; how did you get here? From Umbridge we learned that you need the Ministry's permission for traveling," Shino pointed out.

"Ah, Dumbledore-sama explained that to us. Apparently, within the last week, he got someone in the Ministry to work for him. The person's in the transportation part of the Ministry, so all he had to do is pull some strings."

"Did you take a portkey, like we did? Or did you use something else?" Tenten asked, obviously curious.

"We 'Floo' here. Through the fireplace."

...What?

A light sparked in Sasuke's head. "You mean that strange fireplace 'spell' that lets you go through many fireplaces and stops at the one you want? I just recently read about that in one of the books we picked up."

"Where the hell did you get a fireplace?" Kiba asked.

"Well, oddly enough, Hyuuga think that the apocalypse is going to happen someday, so they installed a fireplace so when everyone is freezing to death, they'll be nice and warm in their homes. It may not be logical, but it was certainly helpful." The ninja (minus Neji and Hinata) began laughing.

"We'll be the last ones laughing when you're freezing to death," Neji muttered.

—

"Ah man, can't you stay just another day?" Tenten whined to Gai. He grinned proudly.

"Tenten-chan! Do not worry! I shall be back in two months! Work hard!" He shifted to his nice guy pose and his teeth pinged. Tenten, a bit hesitantly, mimicked the pose. Gai jumped and hugged the surprised girl. "YOUR YOUTHFULNESS SHINES BRIGHTLY!"

"Maito-san, I do believe you should get ready to leave," Dumbledore said pleasantly. Gai jumped into the green fire and waved enthusiastically. Within moments he was heading back to Konoha. Kurenai was the final ninja to leave.

"Remember to do your homework!" She said before she too was whisked off to Konoha. The kids looked over to Dumbledore, who was looking over a scroll.

"Tsunade-sama sent a message to me when your sensei arrived. In exactly one month, they are going to send Hatake Kakashi and Yuuhi Kurenai back. I'm afraid to say Maito Gai isn't going to be going, but rather Sarutobi Asuma with his students." Ino pumped her fist into the air with a grin. "She also mentioned coming here herself, just to see what the school is like."

"She just wants to get out of paperwork," Sakura muttered, "and we're the ones scolded for not doing our work."

Dumbledore pretended not to hear her, "Now, it's almost past curfew. You are not expected to do whatever homework was assigned today, but I would suggest you do it for your own benefit. I hope you had a pleasant day, and good night." The foreigners bowed and walked off to their dorms.

One boy in particular walked with quite a bit on his mind. This boy was Uchiha Sasuke. He muttered the password to get in and he headed straight for his bed, brooding on what had gone on today. Particularly at the opportunity he had skipped on during his fight with Naruto.

He lived for becoming stronger. He lived for killing Itachi. But why was it so hard to harm his teammate? Especially if beating said teammate would mean passing another obstacle in killing Itachi?

..._Itachi._

Admittedly, Sasuke hadn't thought about his brother for quite sometime. If he recalled correctly, the last time he had thought about the boy was about a month and a half ago. Like usual, the image in his head made his brother seem so far away. As if he could never get to that level. But...

Did it really matter?

Sasuke almost couldn't believe he thought that. It was the first time such an idea had even come to his head. As he thought about it, just how would his parents feel if they saw that Sasuke had killed his own brother? Would they be avenged? Would they be proud? Or would they be ashamed at what he had become? These thoughts ran though Sasuke's head as he feel into a restless sleep.

**End of Chapter**

—

And so the adventures of Angsty!Sasuke begin. You have no idea how much angst I have planned out for him. _Absolutely no idea. _Also, next chapter will NOT be filler, I swear. It'll begin to follow the book again.

---

**Explanations**

_Sound Ninja's airport trip_ - Originally, I had ten pages of airport stuff written out, but as it turns out, it was boring and repetitive. It's a shame, my OC Mandy was awesomely snarky towards them.

_Other airport stuff_ - No, you cannot go up to a kiosk at an airport and buy a ticket with cash. I had to put that in because I couldn't think of any other way to have them get through the airport.

Although irrevelant, I had to do some research on airplanes and airplane companies and I discovered that the manager for Southwest had an arm wrestling contest over a slogan that they were using. _Best way to avoid a lawsuit. EVER. _Another thing I learned is that some guy died by decapitation via _bathroom door _on a airplane because of cabin pressure. I vote that as one of the worst deaths ever.

_"Uh uh, no hablo English?" _- Alright, even I don't know where that came from. But imagining Neji saying that makes me giggle.

_"He's so kawaii when confused!" - _IT HAD TO BE DONE.

_Sakura vs. Tenten_ - Was that realistic? I mean, she mastered tree walking very quickly, so why should something like that be any different?

_LEE/LUNA, SHIPPED_. Alright, not really. But I think it was an interesting meeting.

_Hyuuga Quirk_ - Am I the only one that thinks these big clans would have some weird fear?

_Sasuke at the end of the chapter_ - Did that transition too fast? Was it choppy?

—

**Omake**

"Tsunade, why are we here again?" Jiraiya asked his busty friend.

"I got bored of paperwork, so I took a vacation here. It may be out of the Elemental Countries, but I heard from someone in ANBU that this is a great place to vacation."

"Tsunade, why am _I _here?" Jiraiya questioned.

"Because I needed someone to accompany because there's no way in hell I'm going with just ANBU. They never talk." Jiraiya stared outside at the large buildings, and sure enough ANBU stationed themselves out of the civilain eye.

"How long do you have off Tsunade? It took nearly a week getting here, and I bet it's gonna take a week getting back."

"I have three weeks off." She paused for a moment. "Well, I don't have any vacation breaks for the next year and a half though."

"So who's in charge of Konoha? Shizune?"

"Damn it Jiraiya, what is this? Twenty questions? Let's just get to gambling!" Tsunade cheered and despite her age and high-heels, miraculously ran down the steps to the slot machines. Jiraiya just sighed.

"Why aren't there any bathhouses in this godforsaken city?!" He cried to the ceiling dramatically. The guests of the hotel they were in gave him a strange look and hurried away. The few woman in his vicinity that could speak Japanese shot a glare at him. Jiraiya sighed again and with an aura of depression surrounding him, he made his way outside.

—

Jiraiya took a step outside and gaped. _Nothing _inside or outside of the Fire Country could compare to this sight. Neon signs lite up the skies in all their multicolored glory. Cars went by with happy and disappointed people within them. And was that a strip club...!?

—

Tsunade watched as she, not for the first time in her life, lost fifty dollars in one spin. She maintained her usual demeanor and tried again with new hope. Thankfully Shizune had the foresight to give her a limit of the money she could use. As much as she hated to admit it herself, she probably _would _use most of Konoha's funds in gambling. While she may not get kicked out of the village (her medical skills were very precious), she certain would be punished.

Ha, she'd probably end up having to heal people in a jail cell.

Once again, she won nothing, and in her momentary gloominess she failed to notice the male next to her checking her out.

"Hey babe," the man said smoothly, "if you're not doing anything later, let's hook up. Room 439." He winked and slyly gave her his hotel card.

Tsunade twitched. "Jiraiya..." she said warningly. Before the man could correct her, a fist connected with his cheek and he was thrown off his stool and into the wall. He feel unconscious almost immediately. She turned her head to look over the man and realized with dread that he _wasn't _Jiraiya and she was _probably _going to jail.

And so she high-tailed out of there.

—

Jiraiya was thrown out of the strip joint forcibly. Apparently he was too old. The saddened man walked down the sidewalk, occasionally kicking soda cans.

Let's just say Tsunade's vacation ended early.


	7. Chapter 7

I really didn't want to say this, but I really do think school is going to interfere with fic writing. Also, since school comes before fanfiction, I'm going to be updating less. But I swear I will NEVER give this up. It's sad because clubs haven't even started at school. God knows how much time I'll have when they start. Another thing that's going to take up quite a bit of time is organizing a forum RL meeting at Otakon (I suggested the idea at the forum and now I'm basically in charge of it.) The con may be a year away, but I've got to estimate costs for people not on the east cost, look up nearby hotels that are cheaper then what's offered on the website, AND I've got to talk to some of my online friends parents. _Do you realize how freaky that is?_

Pray I get free time people. Pray I get free time.

I'm also sorry I can't get to replying to (most) reviews today. I've got about an hour left on the computer. Hence my updating.

Anyways, this actually has to do with the story. From now on, canon scenes will be done in Uzumaki Harry style (htt p://ww w. fanfiction . net / s / 2636980 /1 / UzumakiHarry). If you're interested in the story I just mentioned, it's about ten times funnier and longer then anything I could ever do. Come on, it includes Pimp!Harry. Nothing beats that.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Harry Potter.

**Chapter 7**

"So...how's that secret Defense Against the Dark Arts club you're making going?" Sakura asked as she walked with Hermione. This simple statement caused the girl to drop her books. Sakura watched with amusement as she scurried to save her books from falling victim to her ink.

"H-how do you know?!" Hermione asked in surprise. She waved her wand and the broken ink bottle repaired itself. Sakura smiled pleasantly.

"Like I said before, don't underestimate our information gathering system. We know what's going on in the school at all times." Actually, it was Shino that knew what was going on in the school at all times. If it concerned him, then he would tell the group. Praise Shino!

"Y-you're not gonna tell Umbridge, a-are you?"

"Nah, normally we'd tell an authority figure, but we've seen the DADA courses. You can't learn anything from them. Even if it is illegal, we'll back you up." Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. It certainly would've been a hinder to her grades if she couldn't start this organization. She placed her books on the table in the girls dormitory.

"What else do you know?" Hermione asked.

"Ah, well. You're meeting people in the Hogs Head today at the town Hogsmeade. You choose trustworthy looking people from three of the four houses. You want Harry to teach and he really doesn't want to do it." Hermione goggled at all that Sakura knew. Sakura sent her a reassuring smiled. "You didn't think we'd want in on the organization. I'm so hurt."

"Well, uh, I-I kind of thought you'd report us. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. We're joining anyway." Hermione blinked. Oh, how could she have not seen that coming? "I know you distrust Slytherins, but can you please make exceptions to Hinata and Sasuke? They're trustworthy and wouldn't rat you out for anything."

Hermione nodded, "I suppose I can make an exception towards them." The bushy-haired girl didn't see any other option. If she outright rejected the two, Sakura would push until they were in.

"That's great! See you later!"

—

"Eww, is this place always this dusty?" Ino asked as she entered the Hogs Head. She looked around at the almost empty tavern. "And is it always this empty?"

"Ah, I see the first of our guests have arrived," Hermione said, "take a seat, take a seat." She motioned to the few stools that sat around tables. Reluctantly (and after cleaning it off a bit) they sat down and waited. A few minutes later, quite a few people that the ninja didn't recognize began entering the pub. When the tavern was filled to the brim with people (and a freaked out looking barkeeper) Hermione stood on a chair and coughed a few times. The students entire attention was on her.

"Er," said Hermione, her voice slightly higher than usual out of nerves. "Well – er – hi. Well...erm...well, you know why you're here. Harry here had the idea – I mean" – Harry threw a sharp look at her – "I had the idea – that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts — and I mean really study it, you know, not that rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us–" (Hermione's voice became suddenly much stronger and confident)– "Because noone could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts." Several students cheered. "Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands."

She paused, looked sideways at Harry and went on, "And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but the real spells– "

"You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L too thought, I bet?" A random buy said, watching the girl intently.

"Of course I do," said Hermione at once. "But I want more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defense because...because..." She took a great breath and finished, "Because Lord Voldemort's back."

The ninja watched in amusement as the name brought all sorts of panic through the crowd. One girl even managed to spill her drink all over herself. Oddly enough, the ninja observed, right after the panic calmed down, they all looked towards Harry.

"Well...that's the plan anyway," said Hermione. "If you ant to join us, we need to decide how we're going to–"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" Said a blond Hufflepuff aggressively.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it — " Hermione began.

"You mean, Dumbledore believes _him_," said the boy, nodding towards Harry.

"Who are _you_?" Ohh, bad tracking on the wizards part. They deducted a point from Hermione. A point from what? They weren't quite sure.

"Zacharias Smith," said the boy, "and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes _him _say You-Know-Who's back."

"Look," said Hermione, intervening swiftly, "that's really not what this meeting was suppose to be about."

"It's okay, Hermione," said harry.

"What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" he repeated, looking at the poor boy. "I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you don't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone." The group (and the bartender) held their breath, hoping to hear more.

The boy said dismissively, "All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who–" Mentally the ninja took notes. They now had a name to the boy that Harry had seen killed "–and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, I think we'd all like to know– "

"If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone I can't help you," Harry said. Ohh, temper was rising again. "I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out." Hmm, predictable, noone left. The meeting continued on with questions and interesting comments. What do you know? The boy had actually done quite a bit in his life.

Without dying either, impressive.

In the end, they signed a piece of enchanted parchment and Hermione was in for the terrible task of planning a date and place where they could meet.

—

— By Order of —

**The High Inquisitor of Hogwarts**

All Student Organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs are hereby disbanded.

An Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club is hereby defined as a regular meeting of three of more students.

Permission to re-form may be sought from the High Inquisitor (Professor Umbridge).

No Student Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor.

Any student found to have forms, or to belong to, and Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled.

_The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-four._

Signed:

Dolores Jane Umbridge

High Inquisitor

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he read the decree. "She knows, there's absolutely no way this is a coincidence." Sasuke clenched his fists and bolted off to find Hermione. After a short search, he landed in front of her, making he jump in surprise. He grabbed her wrist and dragged her into an empty classroom. Ron and Harry stood there dumbly until what happened registered in their minds.

"Bloody hell, you don't think...?" Ron questioned. Harry shook his head, Sasuke and Hermione. Haha, like that'd ever happen.

Inside of the classroom, Hermione stared wide-eyed at the Uchiha. "Have you seen the new decree? Someone told, that's the only way she could know." He paced the classroom back and forth, waiting for Hermione to take out the parchment that held everyone's names.

"Noone blabbed. I put a jinx on the parchment after everyone signed. If they blabbed, we'd know. So what's the decree this time?"

"All clubs and organization are disbanded. They have to go through Umbridge before meetings can continue. Anyone seen breaking the rules is suppose to be expelled. Tell me, when you entered the building, was there anyone besides the bartender there?" Hermione sat on a desk and closed her eyes, concentrating on her memory of the day.

"Yes there was. It was a person all cloaked up. But it was the wrong body type for Umbridge, he was too small." Sasuke sighed and shook his head. Idiot wizards.

"Did it occur to you that he may be for the Ministry, a supporter of Fudge, and a hater of Dumbledore? You may not own the bar, but did you think to get him out? Bribe him if possible?" Sasuke scolded, Hermione's face fell and he almost felt guilty. _Almost. _"We can't do anything about it now, but _be careful_. If that list falls into the wrong hands, we're as good as expelled. I _cannot _allow that to happen. I am trusting you to guard that thing with your _life_. Understood?" Hermione nodded, Sasuke certainly was a scary person... "Good, now you should go before your friends burst in. They're outside debating whether or not to go in."

Hermione jumped off the desk and walked as casually as she could from Sasuke, her eyes unusually wide. Yes, Sasuke was truly a scary person.

—

Naruto and Sakura had already read the notice and like everyone who had signed that sheet of paper, they were concerned. Earlier they were informed by Tenten that their Quidditch team was indeed approved by Umbridge. They supposed that this was just a perk of 'working' for Umbridge.

At the moment, they were sitting in Divination, watching as the teacher went crazy over something or another. To their great disappointment, they realized that the woman must've been the first of many teacher sackings. Unlike most of the class, they really respected the teacher and how she did her predictions. They knew for a fact that real seers existed even in the Five Countries, and even if some of it was phoney, it wasn't easy to control something that liked to work by itself.

They sighed and started looking through the books. Both Sakura and Naruto knew quite well that this was beginning to get out of hand, unfortunately, they knew that they couldn't do anything yet. They could only hope Dumbledore would intervene at some point...

—

"You didn't think to tell us your owl arrived injured with a message that anyone could've read?" Naruto said disbelievingly, "My god, even as an academy student that just _screams _'Hey your message was read!' " Harry shook his head in shame, Hermione even mentioned that it might've been read and he hadn't listened. As Naruto ranted about his idiocy, he thought about how blind he really was not to have seen the signs.

"Alright, alright! I get it!" Harry said loudly. "I'm an idiot who could've gotten Sirius arrested! I was blind to how obvious it is that Umbridge was reading my mail! Anything else you'd like me to say?" Naruto appeared thoughtful for a moment before turning to Harry and shaking his head.

"Nope, that's good!" Harry blinked and almost laughed. This boy changed emotions so quickly! "Well, have fun at your sports practice!"

—

Shino was, to put it frankly, spying on Harry. He knew very well that despite the mission given to him, Naruto was very unlikely to actually watch the boy at every point in time. So it was up to him. Oh how he longed for a theme song at the moment. This thought was cut off by Harry's cry 'OUCH!' Using a weak concealment jutsu, he latched onto the walls and watched Harry from above.

"What's up?" several people said at once.

"Nothing," he muttered, "I...poked myself in the eye, that's all..." Shino shook his head, the liar. Shino observed as he gave a long look towards the red haired boy. It took a while, but the moment the last person left, Ron walked over to Harry.

"What happened? Was it your scar?" Ron asked. Shino blinked, the strange lightning bolt scar? Like the other ninja, he assumed he got it quite a while ago and didn't bother to use cover-up on it. Was there something more behind it? Harry nodded and Ron looked increasingly worried. "But...he-he can't be near us now, can he?" _Who?!_

"No," Harry muttered, sinking into the bench. "He's probably miles away. It hurt because...he's...angry." _WHO'S ANGRY?!_

"Did you see him?" said Ron, looking positively horrified. "Did you...get a vision or something?" Harry looked at his feet.

"He wants something done, and it's not happening fast enough."

"But...how do you know?" said Ron. Yes, how _did _he know? Damn it, Shino would have to go to the Library or Dumbledore soon to find out a little more on this boy. Harry shook his head and covered his eyes with his hands, pressing down upon them with his palms. "Is this what it was about last time?" said Ron, quieter than usual. "When your scar hurt in Umbridge's office? You-Know-Who was angry?" You-Know-Who? That evil guy that killed Harry's parents when he was just a child? Now that Shino thought about it, why did the guy kill just his parents, when there was a defenseless baby right there?

Harry shook his head again. "What is it then?" The boy looked up.

"Last time, it was because he was pleased," he said. "Really pleased. He thought...something good was going to happen. And the night before we came back to Hogwarts...he was furious." Shino raised an eyebrow as Ron simply gaped.

"You could take over for Trelawney, mate," he said in an awed voice. Hmm, maybe he should arrange for Ron and Naruto to hang out more, it would be appropriate.

"I'm not making prophecies," Harry said, obviously not amused.

"No, you know what you're doing? Harry, _you're reading You-Know-Who's mind._"

"No," Harry said, shaking his head. "It's more like...his mood, I suppose. I'm just getting flashes of what mood he's in...Dumbledore said something like this was happening last year...He said that when Voldemort was near me, or when he was feeling hatred, I could tell. Well, now I'm feeling it when he's pleased too." So this boy had a major connection towards their enemies? Stupid old man, not telling him this. As he distracted himself with the thought of Dumbledore and all the information he withheld, he felt himself detach from the ceiling and land right in front of the two. Brilliant, there went his dignity.

"BLOODY HELL, WHAT IS IT WITH YOU NINJAS AND SPYING ON US?!" Ron yelled, finally snapping. Shino dusted himself off and adjusted his sunglasses. Shino observed as Harry looked at him wide-eyed, angry, but silent. He had to hand it to him for remaining quiet.

"How much did you hear?" Harry said, his voice cold.

"In response to your question, Ronald. You wizards have proved incompetent by yourselves, so we're taking you on as our own, trying to prevent you from killing yourselves via backfiring wand." The red haired boy scowled and Shino praised himself mentally for the lie. "As for you Harry, I heard enough. I'm not quite sure what your connection to Voldemort and you is, but you can either tell me now or I can read it off of a one-sided library book. Your choice."

"Bloody hell, you don't know?" Ron asked.

"Obviously not."

Ron and Harry exchanged glances before Harry redirected his gaze to the window. "Voldemort killed my parents when I was just one. After he killed my mum, he tried to kill me. The spell rebounded and I got this scar because of that. That's all there is to it." Behind Shino's high collar, he frowned. He certainly didn't remember Dumbledore informing them of this.

"If this spell was sent to kill you, when it rebounded, why wasn't he killed?" Shino asked, genuinely curious. Harry shrugged.

"Noone knows."

"Interesting. While you may be against the idea Harry, I would suggest you go to one of the teachers and tell them about this." With that, Shino jumped to the ceiling again and ran off without another word. A part of him constantly hoping that the two didn't say a word to his friends about his screw-up.

—

"U-ZU-MAK-I NA-RU-TO!" Kiba roared, effectively waking up all of the Ravenclaw tower plus a few of the teachers several corridors down. The angered boy stormed out of the tower and into the Great Hall, releasing as much killer intent as he could. The aforementioned blond boy looked as if he were laughing and cowering in fear at the same time. The poor innocent wizard children were scared half to death, while the teachers looked alarmed.

"Dobe, what the hell did you do?" Sasuke asked casually, almost completely unaffected by the killing intent.

"Remember when Ino joked about turning Kiba's dog into a kitten?" Naruto said, ready to jump away from the enraged Kiba.

"How'd you turn his puppy into a kitten?" Ino asked.

"I looked it up." Before Naruto could say another word, Kiba began his assault. Many kunai and shuriken flew in his direction, almost not giving the boy enough room to dodge. Thankfully only three shuriken and two kunai managed to injure him. The other projectiles were easily caught by Tenten and Sakura with their chakra strings (which Tenten helped her master). The tools were casually put on the table and taken by various shinobi who were slightly low on weapons.

"NA-RU-TO!" Kiba shouted, this time opting to go into a taijutsu battle. The poor students were either utterly frightened of the two or wondering how much they got paid to put this on. "WHAT. DID. YOU. DO. TO. AKAMARU." Kiba punched the boy in the stomach, making the boy fly back several feet.

"I changed him into a kitten! I think he's cuter this way," Naruto said, _downright cheerfully. _The other ninja vaguely wondered if he was suicidal.

"Naruto! Can I have your stuff when you die?" Tenten yelled.

"Split it between you seven!"

"Ah damn," Tenten muttered. Kiba ran towards Naruto, with the full intention of punching him in the head. Moments before the fist connected, he found himself frozen. Naruto appeared to be in the same predicament.

"If you wish to fight, you are going to do it outside," Snape drawled. To their alarm, the two felt themselves being lifted out of the Great Hall. They floated through a few corridors before finally stopping and being dropped outside. Right outside the Great Hall. In front of the windows. Of course, Snape wanted to be entertained, but he also wanted to be a good teacher.

Figured.

Kiba and Naruto quickly regained their composure and began circling each other. "Change. Akamaru. Back," Kiba growled, purposely dragging the sentence out.

"He'll change back on his own!" Naruto reassured.

"_When?_"

"Well uh...in about a day or so..."

"_Naruto_," Kiba growled. He lunged towards the boy who effortlessly avoided it. From the inside of the building, the teachers sighed and watched the show. In the last month, they had gotten used to the ninja's strange habits. One of which included the sparring. They were tested and they proved that if there was a threat to the students, they could effectively protect them. But that didn't mean they liked it when they went at it.

"Think we should intervene?" Sakura asked.

"Nah, let's have Kiba release all his anger, then we can stop him. Plus I'm curious to see the outcome. Kiba has next to none in terms of kunai and shuriken while Naruto is fully loaded. Kiba has the motivation and anger to hurt him, which Naruto doesn't."

And so the genin did nothing.

About an hour and two tired ninja later, they fell to the ground in a tie. At the very same time a couple of people swore at having lost a bet. "Well, that was interesting," Tenten muttered. She and a few others wandered outside, getting ready to retrieve the bodies.

"I suck at gambling," Ino mumbled.

"I rock at gambling!" Sakura cheered.

The genin took a step outside and shivered. Unlike the Fire Country, this world actually had seasons. Included in that was Fall and Winter. Unfortunately for the Konoha nin, this was something that was going to take quite a while to get used to.

"Hmm, should we let them rest a little longer or should we just wake them up now?"

"Naruto, RAMEN!" The boy's eyes shot open.

"WHERE?!" The hyper boy sat up and looked around frantically before pouting and crossing his arms. "That wasn't very nice. You know how deprived of ramen I am!"

"It's unhealthy," Sakura stated plainly as she kneeled down next to Kiba. She paused, considering what she should do to the dog boy. An evil glint flashed through her eyes as she drew her fist back and punched the ground right next to his ear. Kiba shot up, his eyes wide open while Sakura rolled around on the ground laughing.

"What part of good hearing don't you understand?!" He barked. The others snickered.

"Kiba, we're friends with cruel, cruel people," Naruto pseudo sobbed. Kiba nodded solemnly.

—

The ninja stared as they entered the Room of Requirement. The walls were lined with wooden bookcases, and instead of chairs there were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors, and a large, cracked Foe-Glass.

"These will be good when we're practicing Stunning," Ron said enthusiastically, prodding one of the cushions with his foot."

"Woah, it's changed since we've been here, hasn't it?" Naruto said in awe.

"Yes it has."

"I'm surprised we didn't think about this," George said. Fred agreed.

"Just look at the books!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly. She grabbed a book from the shelf and proceeded to sit on the cushion and begin reading. Less than ten minutes after that, all of Dumbledore's Army arrived. The ninja noted how Harry shifted nervously.

"Well," he said, "This is the place we've found for practices, and you've — er — obviously found it okay —"

"It's fantastic!" said a Ravenclaw girl. Several others muttered their agreement.

"Hey Harry, what's this stuff?" asked Dean, a Gryffindor boy, from the rear of the room, indicating the Sneakoscopes and the Foe-Glass.

"Dark Detectors," said Harry, stepping between the cushions to reach them. "Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled..." He gazed in the Foe-glass before turning his back towards it. The students stopped wandering the room and they each sat down on the satin pillow.

"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and — er — " He noticed a raised hand. "What, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader," said Hermione. Naruto perked up at this.

"I'll be leader!" he said. The genin rolled their eyes and pretended to ignore him.

"Harry's leader," said Cho, looking at Hermione and Naruto like they were crazy.

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," Said Hermione, unperturbed. "It makes it formal and gives him authority. So — everone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"All but one hand made it into the air. "Er — Sorry Naruto, majority vote."

"Er — right, thanks," said Harry with a blush that could rival Hinata's. "And — _what_, Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly, her hand still in the air. "it would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" suggested Fred. A few people snickered.

"I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"_Mamori Agensuto Kage Jutsu. _Defense Against the Shadow Arts," Tenten suggested. Hermione shook her head, she'd much rather have a name she and the others could pronounce.

"The Defense Association?" said Cho. "The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Yeah, D.A.'s good,"said Ginny. "omly let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?" A good deal of murmuring and laughter followed.

"All in favor of the D.A.?' said Hermione bossily, kneeling up on her cushion to count. "That's a majority — motion passed!" She took the parchment with everyone's names on it and wrote Dumbledore's Army at the top.

"Right. Shall we get to practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm..."

—

"KYHAHAHA!" Tenten cried as she jumped onto the Slytherin table. A maniacal grin overtook her features and an evil glint appeared in her eyes. "Ohohoho!" She took a step over the cereal. "Today!" she said dramatically. "Is the day we prove ourselves great in wizarding sports!" Another step. "Today! We shall go out into the Quidditch Pitch! We will win! We will beat them! WE WILL PREVAIL!"

"Tenten, your foot's in the oatmeal," Sakura casually commented. The kunoichi looked down and shuddered. So much for her dramatic speech.

"So our first Quidditch game is today?" Sasuke questioned as he grabbed a muffin. As it turned out, Sasuke had a strange love for muffins. Noone was quite sure why.

"Yep!" Tenten chirped as she scrapped the breakfast food off her sandals. "We've been training hard, so I expect us to win!" She flashed them a peace sign.

"By training hard, you mean doing absolutely nothing?"

"Yep!" She jumped off of the table and landed in a dramatic pose. "Let's go and win this!"

—

Seven of the genin stood out on the field with their Quidditch robes swaying theatrically in the wind. The teams stood opposite each other, while the captains glared each other down. "Captains! Shake hands!" The two took three steps towards each other before shaking their hands. "Teams! Go!" The Gryffindor teams jumped on their brooms in a practiced manner. The Shinobi, however, had a little more trouble.

Due to lack of practicing, the ninja were not used to the brooms, nor were they used to flying. If it wasn't for their coordination, they would probably be sprawled on the ground by now. After a few minutes of fumbling around (to the Gryffindor's amusement) they made it up. The teams watched as the Golden Snitch was released onto the field. Next, the Bludgers were released. "BEGIN!" A whistle blew and the Quaffle was thrown into the air. Tenten leaned forward and caught the red ball. Sakura and Ino shot ahead, as fast as their brooms would allow, and kept an eye on Tenten. The girl rose about ten feet before doing a sudden twist and throwing it off to Ino.

Ino caught the ball easily and flew towards the goals, where she tossed the ball. Ron flew towards the ball, but didn't catch it.

"And the ninja score!" Lee's voice echoed through the stadium. Cheers erupted from all around the crowd. Ron flew down, grabbed the Quaffle and returned to his post. He threw the ball at Katie, which she caught gracefully. Katie threw it over to Angelina who leaned forwards as far as she could to increase her speed.

A sudden bludger to her broom fixed that right away.

"ACK!" the girl cried as she fell twenty-five feet into the grass below. A whistle blew and the Gryffindor team flew down to see if their chaser and team captain was okay. The Shinobi landed on the opposite end of the playing field.

"Geez Naruto, that was kind of cruel," Sakura said.

"I knew what I was doing! Anyway, we couldn't let her score, because that'd mean we wouldn't!"

"Idiot! We'd just take the Quaffle away before she could score. You know how good we are at interception!"

"What am I suppose to do with the bat then?!"

"Hit it away from our team! If it goes towards the Gryffindors, let their beaters get the Bludger. Got it?"

"Got it," Kiba and Naruto said in unison. They observed as Angelina stood up and got back onto her broom. They had to admit, she had some stamina. For the second time that day, the jumped onto their brooms and began the game.

High above the chasers, keeper, and beaters, Hinata scanned the stadium for the snitch. She climbed a few feet higher. She let go of the broom and made a quick handseal. "Byakugan!" Suddenly, the stadium became much clearer. Vaguely she noted how the crowds seemed to _glow _multiple colors; she would have to look into that later. She blinked a few times and searched the stadium as thoroughly as she could.

Hm, _nothing. _

She heard a ding and knew that someone had gained a point. For the moment, she decided to listen to the commentary. "And so another point is scored by the ninja! Man, that Tenten is really hot."

"JORDAN!"

"Sorry professor." Hinata laughed, but it ceased as she heard the song that was being sung throughout the stadium

_Weasley cannot save a thing,_

_He cannot block a single ring,_

_That's why we all sing:_

_Weasley is our King!_

_Weasley was born in a bin,_

_He always lets the Quaffle in,_

_Weasley will make sure they win,_

_Weasley is our King!_

Hinata winced, she had no idea how people could be so mean. What did it matter how pure your blood was? Why did it matter what family you were born into? Why did being powerful make you so respectable, especially if your personality was black. Just look at Itachi. She effectively ignored the song and rather went around looking for the snitch. She paused her search for a moment and looked at the Gryffindor seeker. Harry was, after all, more experienced than her in the game.

Hinata gasped as he dived and, like all good seekers should do, she followed him. She deactivated her Byakugan and leaned forward and down sharply. Subconsciously, she channeled Chakra into her legs and to her surprise, the slight tilt in the broom fixed itself and her speed increased. Hell, she was certain she could rival Harry's professional broom. Her hand reached out desperately, trying to grab onto the snitch, but it was too late, Harry snatched it before her.

She stopped cut off the extra chakra flow to her legs and slowed herself to a stop. Suddenly, she felt herself getting knocked off of her broom and losing her breath. She was hit by a Bludger.

"HINATA!" she heard one of the girls cry as they surrounded her. Determination filled Hinata's eyes and she sat up, mustering as much strength as she could.

"I'm fine," the Hyuuga said, softer than she would've liked. She took a few breaths inward and she smiled. That was better.

"Are you okay, dear?" Madam Hooch asked. Hinata gave her a firm nod and sat up. She smiled wider then before as the game caught up to her. That was..._exciting. _She loved it, the flying, the point system, it was awesome!

And so Hinata the Quidditch Junkie was born.

"Who won?"

"It was a tie. We're so amazing we scored seventeen times," Tenten said as she landed on the ground with a smile on her face. "Hinata, you were amazing. You may not have gotten the snitch, but you handled the crappy school brooms wonderfully. We'll definitely win the next game!"

"Sorry, Hinata!" Fred cried as he circled overhead the girl. "I didn't mean to hit you!" The Hyuuga looked up and nodded that she was okay. The boy breathed a sigh of relief before flying to his own team.

"I wish they didn't sing that stupid song whenever we scored," Naruto muttered, "It makes us seem like we support what they're saying."

"I just hope the Slytherins and Gryffindors don't pick fights after the game."

—

"...You got banned from Quidditch," Sakura stated disbelievingly. Harry grimly nodded. "By fighting with the Slytherins?" Another nod. "Alright, that's it. Come with me." Harry blinked...what? Sakura grabbed the back of his cloak and dragged him out of the common room. He desperately waved in hopes of grabbing his friend's attention, but they were too busy doing their homework to notice. (Well, in Hermione's case, in Ron's case, he was listening to his brothers rant.)

"Where are we going?" Harry asked, still being dragged by his cloak. He really didn't like that look on Sakura's face. She shrugged innocently, but Harry knew better. He tried struggling but it proved futile. Despite how weak Sakura make look, she certainly had more strength behind her than one would expect. Harry looked up and noticed that they were entering the dungeon, towards the Slytherin common rooms.

Well, it did seem like Sakura wanted him dead.

Sure enough, she muttered the password lowly and moments later he was surrounded by green and silver. All movement in the common room halted. The students stared at Harry and the aforementioned boy was searching for ANY means of escape.

"Potter? Here?" A random Slytherin boy said.

"Potter!"

Sasuke pushed himself through the crowd of boys and raised an eyebrow. "Sakura, either he's suicidal or you want to punish him." She smiled and pushed the shocked boy towards Draco Malfoy. Harry steadied himself and backed up cautiously. Of course, Sakura would have none of it. She grabbed a kunai for the intimidating effect and pushed Harry forward. The common room silenced.

"Draco, I want you to say hello to Harry."

"Why should I you mudb–" ZING. The kunai flashed in the light and the blonde boy gulped. "H-hello Harry."

"Harry, you say hello back."

"Er — Hello." Sasuke and Hinata watched in the back round, utterly amused. Why hadn't they thought of this. They'd have to try it sometime...

"Good. Now Draco, I want you to say, 'how are you?.' " She held up the kunai again.

"H-h-how a-are you?"

"Respond, Harry."

"I-I'm f-f-fine."

Sakura nodded. "Draco, I want you to say how you feel about Gryffindors."

"Gryffindors are blood traitors and filthy mudblood lovers."

"WHY YOU!" Sasuke sighed and placed a shoulder on Harry's shoulder in an attempt to calm him down.

Sakura continued, ignoring the threatening tone in both of the boy's voices. "Harry, how do you feel about Slytherins?"

"They are annoying prats that think they're the greatest. It shouldn't matter what your blood is or who your family is." The Slytherins in the room were too interested in the conversation to be insulted.

"Draco, why did you insult Harry's friend during the Quidditch match?" The boy smirked.

"It's true. He's a blood traitor and he can't play the game to save his life." Sasuke scowled, but didn't say anything.

"He's a wonderful keeper! You shouldn't judge people before you know them!"

"He's trash. Plain and simple."

"I think the REAL trash is standing in front of me." The boys growled and Sakura stepped in between the two. In a quick motion, she punched the two in the chest, both boys fell to the ground.

"_We _are going to _settle _this _quietly_. If you disagree with me, than these sessions will become _daily_. _Got it?_" The Slytherin and Gryffindor paled at this and they both nodded. "_Good_. Now Draco, you are going to apologize for the song. You are going to apologize for the entire Slytherin house to the Gryffindor house. You are going to do it _sincerely_. Understood?" If possible, the boy paled more. If he apologized, than he'd be betraying the Slytherins! He was the sole heir to the Malfoy family. If he lost the respect of his peers, the Malfoy family would be dishonored forever!

"I-I can't! You don't understand the politics of the wizarding world!" he cried.

"Hn, idiot. She may not be from a major clan, but we are. You brought this upon yourself, and yourself alone. My clan is great enemies with the Hyuuga clan, even so, you don't see me insulting Hinata every chance I get. I would be disgracing my clan and that could lead to either disownment or death. Be grateful you puny rat."

Draco bowed his head and muttered an apology towards Sasuke. He hated to admit it, but Sasuke had a point. But still...if this got to his father, he would be as good as dead. Not to mention what the Dark Lord would think.

"I-I can't!" Sakura closed her eyes and slapped the boy. Draco's hand touched the place where Sakura hit him. He twitched and bowed his head deeper. So long as father didn't find out about this... He hesitantly turned towards Harry. "I, Draco Malfoy, on behalf of the Slytherin House, to the Gryffindor House, apologize for our behavior during the Quidditch match. Forgive us." To Draco's astonishment, about twenty Slytherin's clapped for him while a smaller portion booed him.

"Now that wasn't so hard. Harry, accept the apology."

Harry, with his eyes wide nodded. "I, Harry James Potter, accept the apology from Slytherin to Gryffindor." Sakura grinned.

"NOW KISS!"

"WHAT?!"

—

_Somewhere in the World_

Orochimaru glared down his subordinate; said subordinate gulped. "_What _do you mean _he's not here_?!" Kabuto took several steps back.

"Well uh...we've visited most of the major cities in the United States. You know our chakra sensory skills reach very far, and we haven't detected a thing. You know as well that if he was even remotely close by, you'd sense his seal." Kabuto took a deep breath. "I think we may have gotten the wrong continent."

"_I. Don't. Care. _Five weeks have passed since we left the Sound. If we don't move soon, than the Kyuubi brat's influence may have already effected him. Where are we going next?" Kabuto blinked but didn't complain. He'd rather keep his head attached to his body, thank you very much.

"Ah, Kidomaru suggests we move onto Europe next. More specifically, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, unlike the United States, Europe is very divided and some of the countries speak completely different languages." Orochimaru's features didn't change, but Kabuto could tell he was annoyed with the prospect of learning another language.

"Then let's go," Orochimaru spat out. Kabuto gulped again and called the Sound Four over. Sakon, Kidomaru, Tayuya, and Jirobo stared at the two before cautiously making their way over.

"Well, it's nice to see you're still alive. So where are we going next?" Sakon said. Kabuto looked down at the map he had just pulled out.

"We're going to London."

**End of Chapter**

—

_Explanation_

HERMIONE/SASUKE FTW. Okay not really. But I do love crack ships.

Shino action, I finally got it in. He was feeling neglected.

Akamaru into kitten - Anyone remember the joke Ino thought up in chapter two? I did.

Quidditch - I actually drew fanart for myself. http:// img486 . imageshack . us / img486 / 1420 / quidditchoz7 . jpg It'll look better when I touch it up. I swear. And yes, Kiba does look strange. Tenten's amazing though. Laugh at Sasuke's feet.

Suggested DADA Name: I found multiple words for Defense. One of them beginning with the letter b. You have no idea how hard I tried to make it stand for BAKA. NO. IDEA. ):

Lastly, THAT'S ALL YOU'RE GETTING OUT OF ME DRACO/HARRY FANS.

---


	8. Chapter 8

I am SOSOSOSO sorry about the late update. I would've had it up early, but unexpected things came up. First of all, I had a personal narrative thing due, and I had to work on that for a night. Following that during the first read through, I realized that the chapter moved way too quickly and I needed to pace myself more. So I had to put in about a page or so of extra stuff. Now, during the second read through. I found tons more mistakes then I anticipated. Really, this chapter I must've done the most editing on, ever. Even exceeding the first chapter which took me about a month before I determined I could publish it.

Now for better news, I have a four day weekend next week and will very likely get _tons _of time to work on the chapter. Now I just have to figure out _why _I have a four day weekend.

—

**Chapter Eight**

Orochimaru's eyes shot open as he caught the faint chakra signature of a very familiar seal. His eyes narrowed as what had happened finally registered in his mind. Sasuke was somewhere in Britain and he could now confirm that. That entire month in America was wasted. Heads would roll for this, Orochimaru would make sure. The Snake Sannin closed his eyes and attempted to feel the exact location of the seal. To his frustration, he discovered that the boy was indeed too far away to pinpoint. The man knew this wouldn't be a problem for long, so long as he kept focus, they would be able to locate the last Uchiha.

"I found him," Orochimaru hissed towards Kabuto. The silver-haired boy's eyes widened as he turned slowly towards Orochimaru. Kabuto smirked as he comprehended this. He leaned back and placed the 'Sky Mall' magazine on his chest. Through his head ran the probabilities of Sasuke wanting or not wanting to defect from Konoha and join the Sound.

"If Sasuke hasn't been spending too much time around the Kyuubi-brat," Kabuto started slowly, "then we may be able to bring him to our side. I suggest manipulating his thoughts and memories, starting now." Orochimaru didn't respond, but he started sending chakra pulses from himself to Sasuke. He sent three smaller pulses and one larger one. That way his message could get through loud and clear...

—

"SHIKA-KUN!" Ino laughed as she launched herself at the boy. "CHOU-KUN! I'VE MISSED YOU BOTH SO MUCH!" Both the wizards and ninja laughed as Shikamaru gained an annoyed look. The blonde girl looked up. "ASUMA-SENSEI!" The older man chuckled and embraced her.

"Long time no see, Ino-chan!" The girl giggled happily. Chouji looked around at all the food and quickly decided that this place was godly. Shikamaru looked up at the ceiling and only lost his composure for a few seconds before determining that he liked this place. Kurenai and Kakashi stood next to each other, waiting for the team to comprehend what was going on.

"I thought Tsunade-sama said she was coming," Sakura said. Kakashi shook his head.

"Nope, instead she sent– "

"_I AM THE GREAT TOAD SANNIN_." The strangely dressed white-haired ninja burst through the doorway, getting into his little dance. A forehead twitch.

"Ero-sennin..." Naruto started warningly. Jiraiya scowled.

"There you are brat. Do you know how long it took me to finally find you?" He grabbed Naruto by his ear and dragged him out. An amused Team Seven stood in their wake.

"What do you think that was about?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Not a clue."

—

"Alright brat, I want to train you for the next three years," Jiraiya said as he leaned against the castle's rock walls. Naruto raised an eyebrow and looked up and mentally noted that he had grown a few inches since coming here. Naruto scrunched up his eyes.

"Why me?" The older man shrugged.

"I'll be frank. I'm sure you remember what happened before we found Tsunade, with Itachi and Kisame." Naruto nodded, he was sure he would never forget it... "I don't know how much you know about the Akatsuki, but they are after the bijuu and demon hosts of the country. They want the tailed-demons for themselves. I've done some research and it should be about three years before they are able to get the bijuu." Naruto gaped at the new information. "Shortened version, you're in danger and if you stay at you're current level, you're gonna die." The boy blinked.

"I agree. But...if they have to wait three years. Why did they go after me so soon? What do they want the bijuu for?"

"They went after you to test your strength. They want to know how much of a threat you are to them currently. At your current level, you barely make a blip in their scale. The Akatsuki is made up of nine of the most powerful missing-nin in the countries. I doubt, even by the end of the three year training, you will be able to defeat them. But I want you to be able to hold your ground. Also...I don't know what they want the bijuu for, but it's not for anything good. I am sure of that."

"Okaaaay," Naruto started slowly, as he comprehended all the new information. "But...Ero-sennin. How're you gonna train me when I'm here and not in Konoha?" Jiraiya's serious mood changed quickly to sillyness.

"Why, I'll be staying here for the rest of the year!"

A pause.

"WHAT?!"

—

Shikamaru stared up at the skies with a strong expression of boredom upon his face. The teams (minus Naruto, who was with Jiraiya) were now going on a _scavenger hunt_ which left him to wonder when the sensei had set this up. He sighed and realized his team was waiting for his strategy. He shifted into a crouching position and went into his thinking mode. His two teammates sat down on a nearby tree branch and waited for the lazy genius to finish his thoughts. They didn't have to wait long.

"Team eight is adept at tracking and hunting," Shikamaru started, "it's easy to assume that they are going to be the ones to find the object first. However, I know that Kurenai-sensei and Kakashi-sensei are both sadistic and aren't going to make it easy. There are going to be dozens of traps and obstacles around the objects. Our team is the best bet for getting pass these traps, as we are created for infiltration. However, Tenten, Sakura, and Sasuke are a general team and they are balanced enough to both find and infiltrate."

"So...what do we do?" Ino asked.

"We should find Sasuke's team and follow them. When they find the object, all we have to do is trap them and get whatever they're after and then run off. When they think we're gone, we start following them again. However, by the second attack, I'm certain they'll be suspecting us and then we move onto the next team. We'll try to fight Kiba's team later, for the extra items." Chouji and Ino blinked.

"Did you just say you wanted to fight someone willingly? Who are you and what have you don't with Shika-kun?" The lazy boy sighed.

"The sooner we finish this, the sooner I can relax on the school towers."

"That still sounds strangely out of character," Ino pointed out. She quickly added, "But it does sound better." Shikamaru just sighed and jumped from a tree branch to another, searching for the other genin.

—

Sakura frowned as she stared at the list of items she was given. She never liked to doubt her crush but... "Sasuke-kun, are you sure this is where the kunai with the blue handle is?" He simply nodded.

"Kakashi charged the kunai with a faint Chakra pulse, which the Sharingan picked up. It should be in that log." Sasuke pointed towards a dank, dirty, old log. Sakura and Tenten made a face.

"You mean the one that's all mossy?"

"Yes, now go get it." Sakura shivered.

"I'm not touching that! I didn't bring my gloves today!" A pause.

"You have gloves, for things other then Herbology?" She huffed and proceeded to tell Sasuke off about not paying attention to his teammates. That is, if she didn't suddenly find herself frozen in place by something. She shifted her eyes downward and gasped as she realized her shadow was attached to a much bigger shadow.

"Kagemane, complete," Shikamaru stated plainly as the three struggled to get out of the shadows hold. To Sasuke, this was a huge blow to his ego.

Honestly, how could he have not sensed three people's presence?! Especially one that probably thought it too troublesome to conceal his presence!

"Chouji, get the kunai."

"Okay!"

—

As they would later find out, Shikamaru's team did indeed win by one shuriken. Of course, the lazy boy accepted their win and went off somewhere to stare at the fluffy clouds that seemed much more poofy then the ones in Konoha.

"So, what'd you think of the exercise, children?" Kakashi asked with a smile on his face. Sasuke scowled and muttered something about winning next time while Sakura just smiled. She opened her mouth to say something, but a distinct groaning interrupted her. She slowly turned her head towards the Forbidden Forest and gasped. There was Naruto, crawling desperately out of the trees. Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, and Kiba rushed over to help the boy. The others watched over him concerned, but made no move to help him. A few seconds later, Jiraiya emerged from the same forest, looking amused, and grumpy. Naruto pointed an accusing finger towards him.

"YOU. ARE. INSANE." Jiraiya rolled his eyes and leaned against one of the tree trunks.

"It's you that's weak. We haven't even put the weights on yet." Naruto's eyes widened.

"Weights?!" he squeaked. Jiraiya smiled.

"Yep! Thirty pounds, both legs. I'll give you about a week or two to get used to them, then I'll up them to fifty. I'll add arm weights too, eventually." Naruto groaned and wearily picked himself off the ground. Jiraiya looked over his student and sighed.

"So...where are the nearest bathhouses?"

—

_Language Change_

"Er...Naruto?" Harry asked, a bit hesitantly. "Who's he and why does he look so depressed?" Hermione and Ron leaned in, curious about the white-haired man who was currently picking at his food. Naruto rolled his eyes and pointed his thumb at him.

"He's Ero-Sennin. My sensei. He's disappointed because there aren't any bathhouses around."

"Ero-Sennin? Bathhouses? " Hermione inquired. The white-haired man slowly rose from his spot and stared at the three.

"Naruto, who are these guys?" Jiraiya gave the blond boy a hard look and Naruto caught the message clearly; 'these better be the guys you were assigned to protect.' Naruto subtly nodded and pointed to each of them in turn as he named them. Jiraiya faintly smiled. At least the boy managed to do one thing correctly.

"Unlike what this brat really thinks, my name is Jiraiya-sama." It took a few moments for what Jiraiya said to soak in.

"When did you learn English?" Jiraiya merely smirked.

"Brat."

—

"Oh my god," Hinata whispered as she stepped outside with the other ninja. Each of them gingerly stepped onto a wet, slippery rock. Hinata stood frozen in place as she stared...and stared...and stared. _Snow._ Rationally, since they were farther up North, it should be colder. Hence the weather. But still...her Hyuuga instinct was too far prominent.

And so she fled.

"Woah," Naruto said as he jumped up onto a higher ledge, "I haven't seen this stuff since the mission to the Snow Country." Kiba leaned down to touch it and he immediately pulled back.

"Geez, I've heard rumors that it's cold. But I never thought it'd be that cold. How do people live like this? And this lasts what? Three months? HOW ARE WE GOING TO LIVE?!" Kiba ended dramatically. A vein twitched in Ino's head and she hit him on the back of the head.

"You. Are wearing a parka. Hinata is wearing a jacket. Shino wears a jacket with a high collar. _You and your team have absolutely no right to complain._" She scanned over everyone. "You don't have the right to complain either, Naruto."

"Hey! I have an open collar! My neck will be freezing!"

"That's complaining."

"But–!"

"Shut up!" Naruto crossed his arms and huffed. Stubbornly, he plopped down on the window sill and pouted.

"What I'm curious about, is what we're going to do in Care of Magical Creatures with all this stuff on the ground. Are we expected to wear our winter robes or what? Are we going to have class inside or not?" Sakura asked herself.

"I don't care about Care of Magical Creatures," Sasuke said softly, "What are we going to do about our training? Most of our training clothes are fishnet, tee-shirts, and shorts. Not to mention Ino and Sakura are wearing dresses. Since we didn't expect this, we have nothing else to wear."

"Sasuke-kun has a point," Sakura agreed. If anyone were to look closely, they would've seen the admiration in her eyes at Sasuke acknowledging her clothing. It was about time he noticed! Like most fangirls, her brain blotted out the fact that Ino was mentioned as well.

"Should we ask Dumbledore?" Naruto asked as he finally got out of his stubborn mood.

"We should," Ino agreed. They nodded simultaneously and started the short walk to the inside of the school. However, a sudden projectile threw Naruto off the windowsill and into the soft snow below. Had Naruto been bleeding, two twins in particular would be dead.

"FRED, GEORGE, YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" Naruto yelled at the two as he got up from his position.

"SNOWBALL WAR!" the twins chorused together. All plans to visit Dumbledore were forgotten as magical snowballs were thrown at the group.

—

"Oh god damn it!" Naruto swore as he learned that despite the weather, classes for Care of Magical Creatures were indeed going to be held outside. Thankfully he, Sasuke, Sakura, and Hinata had good enough chakra control to prevent themselves from sinking into the snow (though Hinata still seemed fairly nervous around the snow). They all knew that wouldn't be good with their sandals. Sakura took one look at the giant who now taught the class and shivered. She thanked the gods for wizard's ability to fix anything, if not, she may be hanging up in Hagrid's cabin right now.

The large man motioned for everyone to follow him and the class hesitantly followed him into the forest. The ninja noticed that his fairly recent looking scars were starting to heal. Despite what they wished, the male refused to take any medical help from them. He was convinced (after learning that they were ninja) that they would kill him when they leaned in to help him.

There were quite a few misconceptions between the two.

"We're working in here today!" Hagrid called happily. He turned his head towards the dark trees behind him. "Bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark..." He ignored the whispering between the Slytherin trio. "Ready? Right well, I've bin savin' a strip inter the forest fer yer fifth year. Thought we'd go an' see these creatures in their natural habitat. Now what we're studyin' today is pretty rare, I reckon I'm probably the on'y person in Britain who's managed ter train 'em– "

"And you're sure they're trained, are you?" Malfoy said with a bit of panic on his voice. The four ninja agreed, sometimes things weren't suppose to be trained. They would eventually rebel... "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?" Oh great. Crazy teacher.

" 'Course they're trained," said Hagrid whilst scowling.

"So what happened to your face, then?"

"Mind yer own business!" Sasuke matched Hagrid's scowl, being secretive about this stuff wasn't a good idea. They would have to have Shino's bugs, Akamaru, or someone else find out about this man. Sasuke took a few steps closer to the giant as Hagrid continued walking on with the rest of the class following him deeper into the forest. If the ninja hadn't already mapped out this part, they probably would've been just as nervous as them.

"Gather roun', gather roun'," said Hagrid encouragingly. "Now, they'll be attracted by the smell o' the meat, but I'm going ter give 'em a call anyway, 'cause they'll like ter know it's me..." Hagrid made a strange shrieking call that send the shinobi on edge. If it was attracted to meat, then it was probably a carnivore... Hagrid gave out another call and they watched as the skeletal beast from the beginning of the year enter the clearing.

Despite the grimness of the creatures, the four were interested to know that a few other students in the class could see the threstals too.

"Oh, an' here comes another one!" said Hagrid proudly as a second black horse appeared out of the dark trees. "Now...put yer hands up, who can see 'em?" The four ninja, including Hinata (who was more relaxed now that there was less snow), raised their hands into the air as did Harry, Neville, and a random Slytherin boy.

"Yeah...yeah, I knew you'd be able ter, Harry. An' you too, Neville, eh? An' you four too. Wha' are yer names 'gain?" The four recited their names and he nodded. "An'– "

"Excuse me," said Malfoy in a sneering voice, "but what exactly are we suppose to be seeing?" The man didn't reply, but pointed to the cow carcass which to him, was disappearing into thin air.

"What's doing it?!" Parvati demanded in a terrified voice, "what's eating it?!"

"Thestrals," declared Hagrid proudly. "Hogwarts has got a whole herd of 'em in here. Now who knows—?"

"But they're really, really unlucky! They're suppose to bring all sorts of horrible misfortune on the people who see them. Professor Trelawney told me once– "

"No, no, no," said Hagrid, chuckling, "tha's jus' superstition, that is, they aren' unlucky, they're dead clever and useful! 'Course , this lot don' get a lot o' work, it's mainly jus' pullin' the school carriages unless Dumbledore's taking a long journey an' don' want ter Apparate – an' here's another couple, look– " Parvati shivered as one stepped closer to her. "Don' worry, it won' hurt yeh. Righ', now, who can tell me why some o' you can see them an' some can't?

Hermione, predicably, raised her hand.

"Go on then!"

"The only people who can see thestrals, are people who have seen death." Hagrid nodded and continued to explain a bit about the animals. That is, until he was interrupted by the arrival of Umbridge. The woman began her interrogation of the half-giant almost instantly. Hinata subtly switched on her Byakugan and frowned as she realized that Umbridge had some sort of bias against the man and was writing many lies against him. She had no doubt that he wouldn't be staying as a teacher for very long.

As the girl was too focused on seeing what Umbridge was writing, she failed to notice Sasuke twitch.

"So Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, Sasuke, you say you can see the creatures. If I may ask, who have you seen die?"

"Haku and Zabuza. Two missing nins from the Mist," Sakura replied calmly. However, her voice betrayed her real thoughts. She disliked thinking about this, as she could only be disappointed in the two nin deaths. Even if they died a death they both wanted, she couldn't help but wish that the mission to the Wave had a better outcome.

"Same as her," Naruto said, his voice cracking a bit. He too, wished that the two could've lived to become better people. Particularly Zabuza, he was so close to becoming such a good person...

"T-t-three R-Rain n-nins," Hinata stuttered. She shivered as the memories of Gaara surfaced. Even though she still feared him, she admired Naruto more then before as she learned that he had actually made friends with the scary boy.

Again, the three missed Sasuke twitch for the third time. The boy was far distracted by his mind to pay attention to Umbridge. And so he remained silent, not realizing that Umbridge had asked him a question.

"Mr. Uchiha?" Umbridge said. She scribbled a few notes down on her clip board and lifted her head slightly. Sasuke twitched again and an annoying buzzing made itself known in the back of his head. Sakura shot him a sympathetic look, having misinterpreted what he was feeling. Suddenly, without any warning, his cursed mark swirled and he collapsed to his knees, grasping the seal. People swarmed around him as visions of memories he would rather forget flashed through his head. Sasuke shuddered and he closed his eyes. Through shear willpower, the cursed seal swirled one last time before finally subsiding. He didn't need to be an expert at cracking codes to know what this meant.

Orochimaru was coming. And it was for him. Sasuke panted and kept himself up with trembling limbs.

"_H-he's coming_," Sasuke said as a wave of nausea overcame him.

"_Orochimaru_?" Sakura said worryingly. Hinata looked between the two.

"_O-O-Orochimaru...? As in t-the one t-that attacked Konoha_?"

"_Yes_."

"Hagrid! Professor! You should be getting him to the Hospital Wing!" Hermione cried. She may not like the Slytherins much, Sasuke included, but if someone was crying out in pain right in front of her, even she would put away her hate to do something. Umbridge gasped and dropped her clipboard into the dirt. She fumbled with her wand for a moment before finally steadying it and turning a rock into a stretcher. Naruto and Sakura lifted the exhausted and slightly panicked looking boy into the stretcher.

While this all happened, a certain man stood in the trees, far above the clearing. So Orochimaru was coming, huh?

Not if Jiraiya saw to it.

—

Naruto gave George and Fred a thumbs up as he clung to the ceiling of Umbridge's classroom. Just like he had been doing for the last few hours. "She's gone," he mouthed. The twins, Jordan, and the rest of the ninja walked in cautiously. Naruto dropped from the ceiling. "She'll be back in about three hours. We have that much time to set everything up." He and the other ninja quickly henge'd themselves into someone else to avoid being pinpointed as the perpetrators.

The perpetrators of what, you may ask? Why the greatest prank in the history of Hogwarts pranks, of course.

"Sasuke, I want you, Hinata, and Naruto to get the black dye from the kitchens. To get to the kitchens, you have to find the portrait of the fruit and tickle the pear. That should let you in," George commanded.

"Tenten, Kiba, you need to find the book in our suitcases that has the title '101 Ways to Entertain and Prank With Charms.' Bring it here and study page 56. That's the spell we're going to cast on the tub of black dye," Fred continued.

"Shino, Sakura, Ino, stay with us and keep watch. We're going to be working on the pictures. Jordan, you're gonna stay with us."

"And," the two chorused together, "Be back in an hour at the very least. That's when we sing." They grinned and the ninja nodded.

—

Naruto opened and closed his mouth several times, but noise never came out. For he, Uzumaki Naruto, stood in the kitchen, surrounded by food and house elves willing to serve his every need. And there was food! It was like he had died and gone to heaven! Behind him, Sasuke scoffed and started searching for the black ink that was stored here for whatever reason.

"Dobe, Hinata, start searching for the dye. I don't want our dinner tonight to be black." Naruto snickered and Sasuke knew he'd be getting a comment.

"Are you sure about that, Teme? You seem the type to like black anything." Sasuke didn't even bother looking at Naruto as he threw a kunai at him. "HEY! You might kill an elf, you know!" Sasuke had no retort to that.

"I-I-I found it," Hinata said timidly, "it looks heavy though, we may need to carry it together." The boys walked over to her and peered into the container that held the dye. In a single intelligent move, Naruto stuck his finger in it. He pulled it out and smiled.

"This stuff is powerful. I wish we had this in the Five Countries. The most potent stuff I could ever get was semi-permanent. That was four thousand yen a gallon too!"

"As much as we'd like to listen to you rant about dye, we need to get back to the twins now. We've got the dye, mission complete." Sasuke grabbed a handle on the cylinder while Naruto grabbed the other side's handle. Hinata ran in front of them and kept look out for teachers, students, or random cats that felt the urge to trip them.

—

"I found it!" Tenten cried as she took the book out of the twins bookbag. She casually flipped open the Charms book and read the page it landed on. She broke out into a wide grin. "Damn, Sakura, Kiba, we need to try these out sometime. This one page has a spell for turning someone's hair a different color for a day! Oh, and the next page has a spell for making gloves chew on your hands when you put them on!" Sakura perked up.

"Really? I've got to try that out on Kakashi-sensei sometime!" She exclaimed. Kiba shot her a curious look and cocked an eyebrow.

"Sakura, I thought you didn't like pranks," Kiba stated. The girl felt her face heat up as she realized her mistake. She looked up at the boy and smiled sheepishly.

"W-well, I don't. But Kakashi deserves it. You have no idea what it's like to go to a meeting place expecting training, only to wait three hour doing nothing. I dare you, spend three hours with Naruto ranting about crappy sensei and their habits." She shuddered.

"Why don't you just arrive three hours later?" Tenten asked, still absorbed in the book. Sakura sweat dropped.

"Well, I never really thought of that..." Tenten rolled her eyes and started the return to the classroom.

"Woah! This one lets a person make their shoes and socks go into battle royale!"

—

Ino gaped. She had no idea HOW Fred and George managed to do this, but it was pretty freaking awesome. Or horrifying, it was really hard to catagorize this. But still, she stared at the woman that _was helping them set up the prank. _But no, it really wasn't just any woman, it was a woman who had the gift of the third eye. It was a woman who had a grudge against Umbridge.

It was Ex-Professor Trelawney.

She had to admit, if Fred and George were born into the Five Countries, they would make excellent ninja. They had the stealth, trickery, and the ability to recruit the right people at the right time. As she imagined this, she shivered at the poor teammate and sensei these two would get. Scary...

"We got the dye!" Naruto yelled loudly (but not too loudly) as he, Hinata, Shino, and Sasuke entered the room with an excessively large cylinder of black dye. The twins at the front of the room (who were working on a particularly amusing portrait) nodded in acknowledgment, but didn't turn from their spots.

"Excellent," Fred said, "Put the dye in the corner over there, we need to finish with four more portraits, then we have to add our singing to it." The twins waved their wands at the same time and a loud croak went through the room as the picture changed into a particularly fat looking toad. "Three more."

"ACK!" Naruto cried as he noticed just _who _else was in the room. "George! Fred! Code four! Code four! Teacher in the room!" Ino rolled her eyes and bobbed Naruto on the head in a very Sakura-esque way.

"She's suppose to be there. Can you believe it? They actually got the support of a _teacher_." Naruto perked up.

"Really? Man, that's awesome." Trelawney sat down on a table and stared at the ninja.

"There are few people in this school that I can truly say I detest. Umbridge, or as you say, Ikeike-sensei, is one of those people. She lost me the only job I could ever get. It's only thanks to Dumbledore's kind soul that I'm here right now." Trelawney smirked uncharacteristically. "Let's shove that bitch off her high horse." The ninja fell flat on their faces in shock.

"FRED. GEORGE. TELL US. WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GET THIS BOOK?!" Tenten, Sakura, and Kiba yelled simultaneously.

"It's absolutely amazing," Tenten said.

"It's perfect!"

"Can I borrow it?" Kiba asked. The twins (who were on the last picture) look at each other and grinned.

"I do believe we've overdone ourselves this time, brother."

"Yes, very much so. But first..."

"If you wish to buy it– "

"–You need to give us at least twenty galleons!"

"Done!" Tenten immediately cried.

"Excellent, but first we must the final excellent picture. Then we shall go onto step two." The room went silent as they waited patiently for the two to finish. Kiba had stolen the book from Tenten and was currently memorizing several spells. A loud croak went through the room at once and the painting changing part was finally over.

"Well, they're finished. What now?" Sasuke asked.

"Turn to page 56, Kiba," Tenten said as she remembered their original orders. The brown-haired male frowned, but did as his house mate said.

"Charm for enhancing dye, here it is."

"Ah good. Now this is a fairly simple charm, it can wear off fast."

"However," the other twin continued, "If we all cast it at once, then the charm should be _twelve times _stronger."

"It won't wear off for weeks!" The twins continued explaining the charm, but at that point, the Shinobi were too absorbed in memorizing how to cast the spell. As George had explained, it _was _very simple. But of course, eight people crowding around a single book made it harder to learn. But in the end, they all got it down.

"Alright, everyone stand around the tub in a perfect circle and point your wands at it like so," Fred ordered. The other ten got into the exact stance. Fred cocked an eyebrow but didn't make a comment. "We'll cast the spell when I finish the countdown."

"Three..."

"Two..."

"One..."

"GO!"

"INFECIO FULCIO!" All of them cried. A dark purple light flew out of their wands and absorbed itself into the dye. They watched in fascination as it bubbled for a few seconds and settled down. But not before releasing a purple gas. They followed the puff of purple gas up to the ceiling and gaped as the gas _dyed the ceiling purple._

"Woah," George said.

"We've never been able to get it that powerful. I can only imagine what it'll do to Umbridge in the long run."

"Only a few more hours left until we can find out," Lee added with a smile.

"Ah, as much as I would like to be daydreaming about our amazing prank on Ikeike-sensei, we need to set it up before she comes back. We've got about two hours until then," Ino reminded. The trio snapped out of their thoughts and quickly apologized.

"Alright, now before we do the singing, we have to set up the slippery floor." Naruto blinked.

"When did we decide to make the floor slippery?"

"Since we found a spell for it a few days ago. We made a couple of modifications and now when she gets covered in the dye, she'll fall right on her face!"

"It'll be perfect!" Behind the boys, Sakura tilted her head.

"You can modify spells? Isn't that suppose to be really hard to do?"

"Hard?" George questioned. "Fred, Jordan and I have been doing it since we were in our second year!" Sakura just shook her head.

"Unbelievable. You guys could probably wizarding geniuses. But of course, you'd rather use it for things like these."

"Yep!" The three said in a cheery unison. Sakura rolled her eyes and leaned against the nearest wall. She watched as the boys got out some sort of plastic roll. They laid it on the floor and flattened it out. She leaned forward a bit to watch them cast the supposed 'slippery spell.' Sakura scowled when she realized that they were whispering the spell, rather then saying it louder. If only she had better hearing...!

"So how does the spell work?" Sasuke questioned as he watched the blue sparks travel up and down the paper.

"Well, my Slytherin friend, we combined the slippery spell with a searching charm, so when the plastic identifies her wand signature, it activates." There was a long pause.

"Wouldn't you need her wand to do that?"

"Yep!"

"How did you...? You know what, I don't want to know." The twins grinned.

"Good!"

"So what next?"

—

"Naruto. If we ever have to make a song for anything. Hell, even if it's just singing. You are _never. ever. _allowed to participate, got it?" Ino said. The boy pouted.

"I think the song's fine!"

"Naruto, it's not fine, and it never will be," Tenten dead-panned. A soft ringing made it's way around the room, they fell silent.

"Alright! Three, two, one!" A green light lite up on the tip of Jordan's wand and the room broke out into song.

"MRS. TOAD! MRS. TOAD! YOU'RE SO FAT! YOU'RE A FREAKING LOAD! MRS. TOAD!" The ninja, teacher, and students quieted down. The green light on George's wand turned red and they began chattering.

"I can't wait till she walks in to that!" Naruto exclaimed. Even the girls couldn't help but giggle.

"Next phase!" Kiba said, "We need to get the dye up there without spilling any of it. That's our job. Sasuke, Naruto, grab the opposite sides of the barrel." The two ninja did as they were asked. "Shino, get upside down near the door and when Sasuke and Naruto get high enough, grab the free handles and channel Chakra into your hands to keep it from falling. Ino, you and I need to get under the barrel and hold it up. You've got an important job, if you don't hold it well enough, it'll pour. _All over you._ Sakura, Tenten, I don't know how effective you guys are, but you're our back up." The eight shinobi nodded and slowly made their way up the wall.

"You know, do you think we should've told them that we can just levitate the thing up?" Jordan whispered to George. The boy shook his head.

"Nah, this is more amusing."

"Ack! Naruto, we still have a few more feet to go!" Ino yelled up to the blond boy. She felt more pressure on her arms. "IF EITHER OF YOU LET GO, I WILL MAKE SURE YOU _NEVER _HAVE CHILDREN." Ino blinked as both boys tightened their grip on the cylinder and pulled it up.

"It's here, what now?" Naruto yelled down. Trelawney stepped up and waved her wand. With a quiet incantation, a dark red light shot out and hit the barrel. Hesitantly, Sasuke and Naruto let go of it and breathed a sigh of relief as it stayed in place. Both boys jumped from their position near the ceiling and landed gracefully.

"How are we going to trigger it to fall?" Sakura asked as she looked up at the ominous barrel. She shivered. She really hoped it wouldn't splash too far.

"Why, that's your job!" Sakura blinked. ...What? "You see, when ten kilograms of dye come crashing in on Umbridge, we will instantly be rewarded as the perpetrators. However, we won't be anywhere near the barrel when it comes down on Umbridge." The three sighed and wished that muggle video cameras worked in the school. "However, you will be the ones, under your Henge of course, to tip the barrel over and keep it from harming anyone when it falls. Your alibi will be the Kage Bunshin that Naruto makes and Henges into you."

"Woah woah, Naruto's doing the Henge? Naruto _sucks _at doing Henge!" Ino cried. Naruto pouted.

"Am not!" he said childishly. She rolled her eyes.

"Actually Ino, he's improved since the academy days," Sasuke said, "He's preformed several Henge in front of Sakura and I."

"...Really?"

"YEP!"

"Well, now that that's settled. Let us continue. Now, you'll be doing your weird hiding in the shadows thing when the students and teacher enter the room. When Umbridge enters, the plastic should cause her to slip and that's when you push the dye over. At that moment, all the portraits will begin singing our song until the magic wears off," Fred explained.

George continued, "You'll step out of the shadows all dramatic like and say something that insults her. If she starts firing spells at you, run to someplace that a lot of people go. Release your Henge." The twins smirked.

"Good luck!" They chorused together as they left the scene. Jordan soon ran after them as Trelawny exited with an evil grin.

"So...how long do we have until she returns?" Tenten asked.

"An hour."

"God damn it."

—

Jiraiya really had no idea why _he_, The Great Toad Sannin was being interviewed by a _wizard _of all peopleHonestly, he just wanted to train Naruto! Why did he have to go through with this? Jiraiya gave her a polite smile, which she silently returned.

"Mr...Jiraiya, you don't seem to have a last name?" She questioned. He nodded.

"I'm an orphan, I don't know my last name. Nor did I grow up with one," the sannin replied casually. Umbridge blinked and marked down on her paper, _is...an...orphan. Doesn't...care...about...family._

"Alright Mr. Jiraiya. How long have you been tutoring your students?" Jiraiya rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, I'm training just one kid; Naruto. The others have their own sensei to learn from." Umbridge quickly wrote down _admits...to...neglecting...students. _"But I'm not sure how long I've been teaching. I had a genin team for about six years, but when they moved on, I went onto training a cute kid by the name of Namikaze Minato. I'm not quite sure how long that lasted, it's been so long. Old memory, you see."

"Interesting. Any reason why you want to train Naruto in particular?" The man shrugged.

"He reminds me of my old student," he replied simply. Umbridge nodded and jotted that down _reminisces...about...old...students_..._very bias._

"What do you intend to teach your student?" Jiraiya took a moment to think about it.

"Ninja stuff, I'm not allowed to tell you," he eventually replied. Why was he being asked these questions again...?

"That's a shame. Tell me, will this ninja stuff endanger any of the students or the staff here?"

"Nah, we're gonna be far away from the students, so noone will get hurt."

"Uh-huh. When do you plan to train him? Are you taking into consideration the homework he has due almost every day?" Umbridge tapped her quill impatiently on the parchment. She didn't want this man here, the ninja were her tools. So long as they worked for her, she could do almost anything! But if this man was here...he could interfere.

"Hm, I'll give him about an hour or two after classes to do his homework, fifteen minutes of dinner, and then we'll go train until twelve. He should be able to make it through that. On the weekends I'll give him about twelve straight hours of training and then the rest of the day to do whatever he wishes, so extracurricular activities are no problem." Umbridge scowled, but she knew he had a point.

"Now about yourself, what are your hobbies? Interests?" Jiraiya's face gained a perverted smile.

"Ah! I'm the esteemed author of the famous Icha Icha series!" Out of nowhere, Jiraiya pulled out an orange covered book. Umbridge raised an eyebrow. Interesting... _Is...the...author...of...a...series. Egotistical..._

"If I may ask, what is the series about?" Jiraiya's smile turned into a grin as he explained the series. Within moments, Umbridge's face was a bright red. _...writes...porn._

"I'll have you know, Mr. Jiraiya, we do not allow that kind of trash on school grounds."

"Want a copy?"

"Mr. Jiraiya. I repeat, we don't allow that trash on this school." There was a long pause. Umbridge really didn't want this man at the school. She really didn't. But... "When can you get it translated into English?"

—

"Hermione, what's that?" Ron asked as they entered the DADA room. He pointed upwards and Hermione followed his gaze. Her eyes widened and she gasped. Those stupid twins!

"It's something that Fred and George set-up," she eventually said, "it just has to be! When I find them, they'll be scrubbing Snape's dungeons for a week! I can only imagine what Umbridge would do to them..."

"Nah, they'll be fine 'Mione. They've escaped being caught over a hundred times. I'm sure of it."

"Yeah but..."

"Come on Hermione!" A Kage Bunshin Naruto chimed in, "They'll be fine. Let's just take our seats so we don't get caught up in this mess." Hermione nodded as she walked down the aisles to her seat. As she took her seat on the wooden chair, she couldn't help but eye the tub nervously. She just hoped they wouldn't get in too much trouble...

Whispering filled the classroom as others took their seats and observed the area around them. Hermione was silently embarrassed to note that she somehow missed the purple stain on the ceiling. She blinked as she saw a shadow move on it's own accord. She had seen the same thing when the ninja were practicing some sort of hiding technique.

...No...way...

"Alright class, turn to pages 23–...ACK!" Just as Fred and George had predicted, the woman fell down in an undignified heap. The dye toppled over the ledge as the magic that held it in place disappeared. The dye fell all over the woman, dying every single exposed part of her black. Hermione and Sakura gasped as they watched the dye soak through her clothes and stain her skin. Even magic would take ages to get rid of that. Hermione noted how odd it was for the cylinder that held the dangerous dye to fall safely next to her.

"MRS. TOAD. MRS. TOAD. YOU'RE SO FAT, YOU'RE A FREAKING LOAD. MRS. TOAD!" the portraits chorused on a loop. Two modified explosion tags (courtesy of Tenten) went off at that moment. The resulting red sparks shimmered in many colors before disappearing altogether. The class stood in awed silence. Amazing...

From the shadows stepped four masked men and four masked women. The masked men and women stared at the shocked Umbridge.

One of them finally spoke, "And you always claimed these students would never get attacked in the classroom."

"If we were really against you," a woman continued.

"You and all these students would be dead."

"Never. EVER. Underestimate the enemy."

"You're suppose to be teaching them defense, perhaps you should start there." With that, the masked people jumped over Umbridge and dashed out the hallway. The class remained completely silent.

"LEAVE. NOW!" Umbridge roared. The students left through her office, all chattering excitedly.

—

"Who do you reckon those guys were?" Ron asked as they finally left the classroom. His friends shrugged.

"They mustn't have been too dangerous, or you guys would have attacked them, right?" Hermione asked the ninja suspiciously. The Kage Bunshin Sakura shook her head.

"No. You're wrong. With the way they were dressed, they were probably ANBU. Naruto, Kiba, Tenten, and I are nothing more then genin. We're the lowest ranked ninja of them all. If we had gone against them, we'd surely be dead," Sakura explained, "but with the way they acted, I really don't think they're against us."

"Lowest ranked?" Hermione questioned. "What level are these 'ANBU?' "

"They're the second strongest of all ninja. Not just anyone gets in."

"Second strongest?"

"Ah, the strongest are Kage level. Usually the Kage are the leaders of the Hidden Villages."

"Hmm, interesting." Hermione filed this piece of information into the back of her head. She muttered the password to the portrait and it swung open, allowing for everyone to go in. She stopped in her tracks and her eyes widened. It was them! The masked men and women glanced in her direction before bursting out into snickers.

...Wait, what?

Each of them formed the same hand seal and in a puff of smoke, there were the eight ninja. She stared between the two Sakuras, and Narutos. "Wha?" The Naruto and Sakura that stood next to him disappeared in another puff of smoke.

"Woah," Ron said dumbly. Neville, Seamus and Dean, who had entered with Hermione, Harry, and the Kage Bunshin all gaped.

The real Naruto flashed the trio a peace-sign. "Was this all your doing?" Harry questioned. They shook their heads.

"Nope, we had Fred, Jordan, Trelawney and George help us in the planning process and setting up. It's because of them that Umbridge is going to stay that color for a looong time." A pause.

"TRELAWNEY?!"

"How'd you manage to get her?"

"It one of the mysteries of life!" Kiba exclaimed. In a much smaller voice he continued, "We don't really know ourselves. But she didn't rat us out, so she's cool in our books." Akamaru barked in agreement.

"That's a terrible thing you did!" Hermione scolded, "you could be expelled! Not to mention Umbridge is going to be out for your blood! How could you be so irresponsible!?" She shook her head. "What are you going to do? What have you got to say for yourself?!"

"In case you didn't pay attention," Sasuke started, "if Umbridge pays heed to our warning, there may be reforms within the DADA system. We may be able to stop this risky DA business if the Ministry and Umbridge consider our 'appearance' a potential threat. Hopefully they'll realize that students could die if they are improperly trained." Hermione fell silent. He really did have a point. Seamus blinked...DA?

"You're right. We'll just have to wait."

—

Hermione waited, and waited, and waited. But the article declaring the reform of the DADA system never came. Umbridge took a week off (very unorthodox of a teacher, Hermione thought), and thus everyone had an extra free period. She noted that in the week that Umbridge was gone, even the teachers seemed to cheer up a bit. It was now Sunday and now she knew Umbridge would be back very soon. She sighed and smeared some jelly across her bagel.

"Hey Hermione, look at this!" Harry said. Hmm? The boy handed her The Daily Prophet. She read the headline and nearly dropped her bagel in shock.

**DADA System Needing Reformation?**

**By Susi Oaks**

**Almost a week ago at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardly, Umbridge, the DADA instructor at the time, was supposedly attacked by eight unknown persons. Dolores Umbridge is the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts and is a Ministry representative. When questioned about this, Dolores gave no comment. **

**As you may know, to keep children learning in a safe environment, the practicing of spells within the classroom has been abolished. But as the attack on Monday shows, what could happen if they were attacked by unidentifiable sources? Would they be as merciful as the ones on Monday? Is this a risk to our children?**

**This reporter thinks so. These people obviously were being kind against Umbridge, but will they always stay this way? What if these people start attacking our children? Would they go against the rest of the wizarding community afterwards? Could we all be in danger? Hopefully the paperwork for an investigation will go through sometime this week. **

**This reporter is concerned that there has been absolutely nothing on Defense Against the Dark Arts within the Ministry at the moment. Even as I type, I intend to go into the Ministry and do a small investigation of my own.**

**Wish me luck. **

Hermione read the short article with a ghost of a smile on her face. Could this really be what she and the others were looking for for the last semester? Would they actually learn things rather than doing things illegally in the Room of Requirement?

The bushy-haired girl would read a few days later with a shiver about Susi Oaks mysterious death.

Her eyes skimmed the paper for anything that seemed even just a bit legitimate. She stopped at another small article. While it had absolutely nothing to do with school, it was something that interested her greatly too. Hermione wouldn't admit it out loud, but the supposed 'new continent' fascinated her greatly. She had tried as hard as she could, but every time she went to the library or a bookstore, she could find absolutely nothing on this fascinating place. She truly hoped that the land would be open to ordinary wizards soon.

Honestly, what could be so dangerous about a place inhabited by humans?

**Unnamed Continent Details**

**By Steven Reg**

**Since the discovery of this strange world nearly five months ago, we've communicated with these people and tried to make peace. A few hard discussions later and we are almost ready to set up an alliance with a place that refers to themselves as Iwa, or 'Rock'. By the end of the week, an Ambassador will be send to Iwa to make peace. There we will start doing in-depth study on this continent.**

**While we are finally forming an alliance, it's not all joys. From what we've uncovered, the people that inhabit these lands are far more merciless and inhuman then we can even imagine. The Ministry has almost lost a grand total of five Aurors to these people. Thankfully their skills has allowed all of them to live. But even with Iwa on our side, we have yet to meet and discuss coalition with any of the other towns. The Ministry has determined 'Oto, Suna, and Konoha,'** **as worthy allies.**

Hermione's blood ran cold. Ko...no...ha? That was where the ninja were from, wasn't it? But, that couldn't be! It had to be fake, it just had to be! Even as these thoughts ran through Hermione's head, she realized that this was logical. It would explain why Dumbledore asked them to attend Hogwarts. So...they weren't spies?

_And the answer to her questions about the continent were right under her nose? _It figured. She shook her head and continued reading.

**The Ministry is unsure of when these alliances will be set up, they are hoping to achieve their goal by the end of next year. If all is goes well, we may very well avoid a potential war with these villages of supermuggles. So, let us hope for the best and pray for the ambassadors and aurors that travel to this continent.**

Hermione looked over the article a dozen times before she finally handed it back to Harry. Interesting... She stood up from her seat and brushed her skirt off. She certainly had a lot to think about now.

**End of Chapter**

—

Well, I can say I deserve to be shot now. In German, we are given names. And my German name is Susi (lol self insert). So guys, what did you think about the prank? I spent _ten _pages on it. That's dedication, man.

Now, I'll admit to having forgotten about how to really enter the kitchens. I've searched and searched, but I really can't figure out where it's mentioned in the book. Nor can I find it on the internet. If someone would like to point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it.

Oh, and there was more Angsty!Sasuke. You should all be thanking me.


	9. Chapter 9

I HAVE NO EXCUSE. That's right, I have no excuse for my laziness in updating. However, I've updated and now you can't complain. Anyway, this is when I start talking about things that have absolutely nothing to do with the fic. So gaiz, Halloween's coming up. I started my costume about three weeks ago, so I'm okay. I still need like sixty to seventy dollars before I can completely finish it. If you're curious I'm going as Sakura from Shippuuden. I've got everything but the boots, shin guards, and headband. I need to modify the medical skirt and shirt though. Those damn zippers are very annoying.

Oh, I've also learned that I have unfortunate luck with burning. In science, I burned myself lighting matches. I've hit my hand/arm against the iron while it's on too many times then I can count. I got a hot glue gun today and that can only end badly.

And just so you know, this is the super angst chapter. It's got Sasuke, Harry, and _Naruto _angst, with a hint of Sakura angst. Also, this is when the manga starts coming into play, so if you watch the Naruto dubs and don't want to get spoiled, you might want to turn away now.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, nor do I own Harry Potter.

**Chapter Nine**

Orochimaru was absolutely certain his jutsu were flawless. He was sure that he could become a master! Hell, he was sure he was just a hair breadth away from becoming a Jutsu Mater! However, what was happening right now, utterly baffled him. He, Kabuto, and the Sound Four were able to track Sasuke-kun through England to a country called 'Scotland.' But the moment he was lead to a forest, something kept him from entering.

He was absolutely certain that it wasn't anything physical, for Kabuto had entered the forest without harm. But as he approached it, it was almost as if he hit a mental barrier. Whenever he even approached it, he felt foreboding, he felt fear (something very new), and he felt as if something terrible would happen if he dared to go further.

So they set up their campsite just on the outer edges of the forest. Every night, Orochimaru would send a steady stream of chakra to Sasuke's seal, all in hopes of him being manipulated to the point of leaving to seek out Orochimaru. However, as he discovered, a month had passed during the plane-less trip to Scotland. It horrified all the ninja to discover just how long it had taken them. All the flying had truly wasted away at their endurance and Orochimaru was certain to set up training sessions each night.

Who knew when Orochimaru would be attacked?

—

Sasuke tossed and turned in his sleep. Sweat clung to his clothes, and in turn, to his sheets. Within his mind played memories of his childhood. His relation to his older brother, the few days before the massacre, and that fateful day. All of this had been repeating in his head constantly since that Care of Magical Creatures class. Each night they would get stronger and stronger. He wasn't an expert at code breaking, but he knew very well that this meant that Orochimaru was on the move towards him.

Sasuke could only hope it would be for something more than killing him for living through the seal. Even he couldn't go up against a Sannin.

The boy's eyes shot open for the umpteenth time that night. Another side-effect of the dreams, he would wake up, feel drowsy, fall asleep, and then it'd repeat. Sasuke knew he was going to become an insomniac if these didn't stop. Already dark bags had begun to form underneath his eyes. Wearily he sat up and glanced at the grandfather clock. He sighed and stood up from his spot. He moved to make his bed, but the rustle of the sheets behind him made him stop.

"Isn't it a bit early to get up?" the blond male asked with his arms crossed. Sasuke blinked and yawned.

"Not for us ninja, it's not." Sasuke flattened the comforter on his small bed.

"So who is this Itachi anyway?" Sasuke froze. How did he...? "You constantly mention this person's name in your sleep. So who is she? Your girlfriend?" Sasuke twitched before turning slowly to Draco.

"No," Sasuke said, his voice quivering slightly. "He's my...brother." Draco's eyebrow rose. "How could you tell it was a name?"

"You don't know? You talk in your sleep all the time. It doesn't help that you're always thrashing around. It would be nice to get some sleep around here. You should go to the nurse, I do think she has a dreamless sleep potion." Sasuke blinked, why hadn't he thought of that? A dreamless sleep potion? He could've used that quite a lot when he was younger.

"I'll consider it, Draco. Now get back to sleep before I slit your throat with a kunai." The boy paled out before falling back onto his pillow. Sasuke smirked. A bluff here or there couldn't hurt.

—

"Who's that?" Ino asked as she sat down for breakfast. She pointed to a blonde male with hair reminiscent of Naruto's. The difference was the flatness of the hair and the slight spike it seemed to have gained naturally. The aforementioned boy sat at the very end of the table looking quite depressed. Kiba, Tenten, and Sakura leaned forward to get a better look.

"I don't know," Tenten admitted, "an intruder possibly?" Sakura nodded.

"Seems like it." She took a deep breath as she thought up a quick plan. "Tenten, I want you to throw a few kunai towards him, but make sure they aren't aimed for any vital areas in case he's not a ninja. Kiba, Sasuke, Hinata, and Ino, you three go capture him. Ino, stay back incase the person is hostile and needs your jutsu to control him." The five nodded. "GO!" Tenten threw three perfectly aimed kunai at the intruder and the blond boy merely blocked all three with three separate kunai. Tenten quickly grabbed the six with chakra strings to avoid student injuries.

"I'm not in the mood to play, Tenten," the boy muttered darkly. The girl gaped, how did he know her name? Was she really becoming that well known around the Five Countries?!

YES!

Wait. That voice, those whisker marks...it was...Naruto?

"Na...ruto?" Tenten asked hesitantly. The four posed for battle stopped short and nearly fell over. Naruto...? That was impossible! He wasn't wearing his orange jumpsuit! It had to be a terrible impostor!

"Yes?" The boy asked, annoyed. The shinobi stood in shocked silence. Silently, the seven took in what they were seeing for the first time. It was surprisingly simple, nothing more then a black tee-shirt with (what they assumed) to be the Uzumaki spiral and standard ninja pants with a kunai and shuriken holder. They didn't even know he _owned _standard shinobi pants!

The girls realized with a slight blush that Naruto looked quite attractive in this outfit.

Shino was the first to recover, "Naruto, what happened to your jumpsuit and headband?" The depressed boy spun his cereal around with his spoon.

"Ero-sennin's training wore my jumpsuit so much that it completely fell apart last night. Even the headband cloth was worn down enough. That damn Ero-sennin refuses to replace it too!" The boy pouted and crossed his arms. "I'm stuck wearing this until I can convince him to get a new one!"

Naruto failed to notice the girl's drooling looks. Oh they certainly wouldn't mind at all.

They wouldn't mind at all.

—

Through the week, Sasuke could only raise an eyebrow as tinsel and other decorative, shiny things were placed upon the walls. He could only vaguely recall why the students would be hanging up such useless things. Having been forced to study spells and such in the week before school started, they didn't look too far into the holidays. After a recent study session, they studied muggle holidays, yet they never got an in depth look into how each holiday was celebrated. All but Sasuke (who found himself fascinated despite himself.)

Sasuke leaned against a tinseled wall and thought about the holiday he found particularly fascinating.

Christmas.

He wasn't quite sure why he found it so interesting, but he figured it was the gesture behind it. It could also have to do with the many strange traditions surrounding it. Civilians lighting up their houses to the point of being blinding? Putting pine trees in rooms and then decorating with ornaments? Giving presents under said tree and then dismantling the tree the next day? The holiday was so amazingly useless that Sasuke couldn't help but marvel.

However, there was something that Sasuke and many others with fangirls feared with a passion. The dreaded mistletoe. The Uchiha shuddered at the thought of Sakura and Ino figuring out the tradition behind mistletoe. Nothing could be more scary then a fangirl with the potential to kiss their crush. He knew quite a bit about fangirls. If they got the excuse to kiss their crush, they would _sell their souls to the devil _to do it. He shuddered as several memories of his time as an academy student in Konoha resurfaced. He would never be able to forget Maiko. Ever. Such a scary girl...

Within his musings of the holiday, the meeting he was suppose to be paying attention to went right over his head. He glanced up and was a bit surprised to see everyone staring at him.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura said, "We need to decide what we're doing for winter break. Shino and Kiba say that Harry and Ron are going to Ron's house. Do you agree to send Mrs. Weasley a letter, asking her to let us stay over?" Sasuke blinked. He really was sleep deprived if he couldn't even concentrate on such a short meeting.

"I agree," he eventually said. He didn't fail to catch the curious looks he was getting from his teammates. Great, now this would lead to questioning. Just what he needed.

"Sasuke, are you alright?" Tenten asked, "You seem to be a bit off today." The black haired boy yawned.

"I'm tired, that's all. I didn't get a good night's sleep last night." Tenten nodded as she accepted this explanation. Even so, an air of suspicion floated above her head. Sasuke rolled his eyes and laid his head down on the table.

Sweet sweet sleep.

A stinging on his shoulder made him wake again. Damn it. Couldn't he get a moments rest?

"Sasuke..." Sakura said, almost pityingly. Undoubtedly she had just figured out what had been causing his insomnia. Sasuke scowled, if there was one thing he hated above Itachi, it would have to be pity. A bit annoyed at himself and the girl, he stood up and roughly slammed his palms into the table.

"I'm going to take a walk," he muttered before leaving the room with seven confused shinobi in his wake. Sakura stood up to follow him, but Naruto grabbed her arm before she could chase after him. She looked down on him and he shook his head. Sakura sighed and she sat back down. The door closed and whispers began going around the table.

"It's the anniversary of...that day, isn't it?" Ino questioned quietly.

"Not today," Sakura replied, "It's coming up really soon though. I think Sasuke might be feeling a bit depressed." Truth be told, Sakura had forgotten about that little factor. If the anniversary WAS coming up, then she may just be worrying about nothing. Maybe Sasuke's reaction to the seal was a one time thing! Maybe his depression was caused by this!

She knew she was just telling herself lies. She had heard it from Sasuke's own mouth; Orochimaru was coming. Beneath the table, she clenched her hands tightly. Sasuke shouldn't be left alone, Orochimaru could be right outside of the door! She turned her head to the door with an almost desperate expression.

"Is the meeting adjourned now that we've decided?" Sakura asked. They exchanged looks and shrugged.

"I suppose so." She stood up with a screech and tried to run out the door for Sasuke. For the second time that day, a hand on her wrist stopped her.

"Naruto, let go," she commanded. The other five stopped to watch with much interest.

"Don't go after him," Naruto said in the most serious tone anyone had ever heard from him. It didn't help that his bangs covered his eyes quite well. He shifted his head upwards slightly. "You may be concerned, but you need to let him deal with this on his own. Understand?" Sakura gulped. Who knew? Naruto could be scary.

"O-okay." She was sure to keep her promise.

—

That night, Sasuke's dreams got worse, despite having drunk a dreamless sleep potion. The blood on Itachi's face became more detailed, as did the teenager's Mangekyou. Sasuke could actually feel the tears on his young childhood face as well as every single minuscule detail of that night. Outside of his dream, he was flailing and cursing quietly.

_Within the realms of his mind, he felt tears sting his face and his heartbeat race. "This isn't true! You're not my older brother! You can't be!" Sasuke cried loudly. Itachi's expression didn't change._

"_The reason why I continued to act as the brother you desired was because I wanted to verify your capacity." Sasuke gasped and Itachi continued, "You will become my opponent, as the one who will confirm my capacity. You carry that potential. You detested me and held a grudge against me. You continuously wished to surpass me. And that's why I let you live, for me. You are like me, one who is capable of awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan within." A breeze drove the scent of blood into Sasuke and Itachi's nose. Sasuke shivered, he didn't like where this was going one bit. "However, this is a special condition." The breeze turned into a gust, his bangs flew into face, not that he cared. "Your closest friend...you must...kill him!" Sasuke's eyes widened._

"_No way." A vision of Shisui, the happy older brother he never head, flashed through his head. A stronger image of Naruto appeared in front of him and in the real world, he gasped. To obtain what he needed...he would have to kill him..._

_His dream went on. "Just as I did," Itachi said unnecessarily. _

"_That was...you...?" If Sasuke weren't busy trying to rid himself of this nightmare, he would have probably been amused at his younger self's lack of perceptiveness. "You killed Shisui-san?!" _

"_That's right. Thanks to that, I obtained these eyes," drawled Itachi in his monotone voice, "in the main building of the Nakano Temple, in the right corner to the rear of the room, under the seventh tatami mat, there lies the clan's Commentary Scroll. Within it's writing, the original purpose of the Uchiha Clan's doujutsu is explained, as is its true secret." Sasuke lifted his head slightly. Its true secret? "If you can activate it, the number of people, including me, who can use the Mangekyou Sharingan will be three. If that happens, there is reason to let you live. But at the moment, you aren't even worth killing!" Itachi shifted his head to the side and Sasuke gasped. Those very words...they stung the most. "My foolish little brother." Itachi closed his eyes. "If you want to kill me, despise me, hate me, and live a loathsome life...run away, run away, and cling to life. And then someday, when you have the same eyes as I do, come before me." Itachi's eyes shot open and Mangekyou Sharingan was revealed for the second time. To this day, he wasn't sure why he looked Itachi directly in the eye, but in a split second (which seemed like many hours) he was living his worst nightmare. _

To his relief, he was able to wake himself before he saw it all for the second time. He sat up and looked around. Standing around his bed were his roommates.

"Thank god we don't have to wake him up," Draco muttered.

"W-what...?" Sasuke choked out. He noted how unusually high his voice was.

"You were screamin' and yellin'," Goyle said. "We thought you were havin' a pretty bad nightmare."

"Pretty bad?" Draco scoffed, "I think the rest of the house is up by now." A drip of sweat rolled down Sasuke's forehead. The whole house...? He couldn't let anyone see him like this! He threw the covers off himself and using the speed he gained from the Chunnin exams, he ran. His roommates could only stare in awe.

Sasuke ran through the halls, knowing exactly where he was heading to. He passed a very confused looking Filch and Mrs. Norris before finally coming to a stop in front of Gargoyle.

"B-blood Pops," he panted. His stomach did a turn. Blood...

"_I hope Kaa-san won't punish me for being so late!" Sasuke thought as he turned a corner and went into the Uchiha District. He stopped for a moment and looked up at a lamppost. "Odd, I thought I just saw someone..." He shrugged and continued walking along. He glance up at the street name and turned a corner. His stomach gave a great lurch as he saw Shuriken and Kunai lining the shop walls. On the ground lay his Aunt and Uncle..._

Sasuke shook his head of these thoughts, but a fresh wave of tears made themselves known. The gargoyle jumped aside and hesitantly he began his ascend up the stairs. He made his way up and took a deep breath before opening the door to Dumbledore's main office.

"D-Dumbledore-sama?" Sasuke choked out. The elder man was clad in his night clothes and looked about ready to go to bed. He looked up and frowned.

"Sasuke, come sit down." He gestured to the seats in front of his desk. Sasuke paused, but sat in the offered chair, regardless. Against his will, he curled up with his knees against his chest. Dumbledore placed his half-moon glasses on his face. The room remained silent for a long time. Sasuke paused before breaking the silence.

"I-I'm sorry for intruding," he whispered. Dumbledore shook his head.

"My office is always open to students. If I may inquire, what is troubling you?" Sasuke remained quiet.

"Nightmares," he finally said. Sasuke disagreed with himself. There was no way to call what he had been seeing nightmares. To say they were nightmares would be to call a threstal a unicorn.

"I see," Dumbledore said, "have you considered using a dreamless sleep potion?"

"It didn't work," Sasuke said flatly, "it didn't even dull them." Dumbledore blinked, interesting. There had been only a few cases like this...

"Sasuke, if you don't mind me asking, what was your nightmare of?" Dumbledore noted how Sasuke got very quiet. Minutes passed and the boy avoided eye contact. Ten minutes passed before he found it in himself to look up.

"I-I...W-when I was j-just seve– " Sasuke was cut off, for the door to Dumbledore's office had opened, and behind it, Ron, McGonagall-sensei, Harry...and Naruto. Sasuke glanced upwards, at least the dobe had enough sense to follow Harry here, especially when the boy seemed so panicked.

"Sasuke, go into my back room," Dumbledore commanded. Sasuke silently praised him, this was not something he wanted to explain. Sasuke moved his knees slowly away from his chest and wearily walked towards the second door. The Uchiha didn't pay attention to his surroundings, but in any case, he found a chair and sat down, curled up and looking quite defenseless. He tried to forget what he had been continuously seeing, but it was just so hard. Why did it have to be him? Why did his brother do this? Even the thought of Itachi testing himself seemed strange to him. Was there a better motive? Was Itachi lying to him? So many questions remained unanswered.

"You know Sasuke, it's okay to cry sometimes." Sasuke blinked, a bit startled. The orangelessness actually did do quite a bit for Naruto's stealth. Sasuke regained his composure quickly.

"What do you know, Dobe?" Naruto smiled sadly.

"You know as well as I that I'm not very liked at all. Even since before the academy. Don't tell me that the great Uchiha was blind enough not to see it." Sasuke blinked. Since before the academy? That made no sense, Naruto started pulling pranks in the academy, not before. Wasn't that why he was so hated? "The teachers would always teach me fake things and try to sabotage my chances of becoming a genin. Even Iruka-sensei hated me before he got to know me." Naruto's smile brightened. "When he took me out for ramen the first time, that was the happiest day of my life." Sasuke remained stoic as he learned these things about Naruto. Which lead to the question:

What did anyone know about the boy?

To Sasuke's surprise, if what he was telling was true, then not very many people knew the Naruto that had gone through all that. Naruto, was unfazed by Sasuke and continued. "It wasn't until I became a genin that everything started going right."

Curiosity got the better of Sasuke and he cut the boy off before he could say more. "Naruto...why do the villagers hate you?" Naruto was silent.

"I-I don't want to tell you." For a second, Sasuke considered pressing the boy for more information, but he stopped himself. Naruto would tell him in time. He knew he would. He really was his first friend...

"_To achieve Mangekyou Sharingan. Your closest friend...you must...kill him._"

Sasuke's eyes widened. Not again...

The two sat in content silence for awhile while the Uchiha's musings and memories took over his head. Naruto looked up at the ceiling and spoke, "It's been a few years since that, hasn't it?" ...How did he know? "You know, I've had only one precious person of mine die before. But I know for a fact that he died doing something he believed in. You know Sasuke, I bet your clan gave Itachi a pretty good fight. They WERE considered the most powerful clan for a reason." Naruto shifted his eyes to the left and right before leaning in. "You know what I think?" Sasuke found himself unconsciously leaning forward. "I bet some escaped. I bet there are other Uchiha outside of Konoha somewhere, just waiting for the perfect time to go back!" Despite himself, Sasuke found himself smiling at the idiot. He knew it wasn't true, all of the Uchiha that were living at the time had their bodies identified. Noone was left alive.

But...even so. The thought was comforting. Sasuke took a deep breath and slowly his heartrate slowed into a healthy beat.

Naruto beamed at Sasuke's attitude change. "Dobe...thank you."

And what do you know? Orochimaru's plan backfired.

—

"Ah damn it!" Naruto swore as Dumbledore told him the details of what went on while he was helping Sasuke. "This won't be docked from my pay, will it?" Dumbledore chuckled and shook his head. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. Sasuke, who stood behind him, remained stoic as ever.

"You, Sasuke, and the other ninja will be joining Harry and the Weasley's soon." The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes disappeared for a moment. "However, I would like to talk to you for a bit, Mr. Uchiha." Sasuke nodded firmly.

"Alright, sir." At that moment, the door opened and a certain white-haired man stepped inside. He bowed deeply before leaning against the stone walls.

"You called for me, Dumbledore-san?" The older man nodded and gestured to the two.

"It seems as if Harry and the Weasley's have left early for their winter holidays. I am sending the shinobi out early, as well. I do believe you would be interested to know this. I don't want an angry ninja storming up to me in the morning asking where his student is." Jiraiya laughed. He laughed because he knew that'd be his exact reaction. This old man was certainly good at reading people.

"Jiraiya-sama, what are you chuckling about?" Sakura asked as Hinata, Kiba, and Tenten followed her through the doorway. Jiraiya just smiled.

"I'll tell you when you're older." Naruto twitched.

"It wasn't even dirty, you old pervert!"

"What's not dirty?" Ino questioned as she and Shino finally arrived. Silently the two cursed the Hufflepuff dorms for being so far away from the headmaster's office. Dumbledore took an old paperweight off of a stack of old paperwork and sized it up.

"I know you're familiar with Portkeys, correct?" The entirety of ninja groan. Oh yes they were. "You will be traveling by Portkey to Grimmauld Place. You'll stay there for the holidays."

"Dumbledore-sama, aren't Portkeys created without permission from the Ministry illegal?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

"Be sure you're holding on!"

"You didn't answer my question!" And they were gone. All except Sasuke who stood there awkwardly.

"So I assume this is the real reason you called me here?" Jiraiya stated. Dumbledore grimly nodded.

"Sasuke, do you mind if I tell him what you told me?" Sasuke shrugged and Dumbledore took this as a yes.

"Around twelve AM today, this boy came running into my office, looking throughly frightened. It took about twenty minutes for him to calm himself down. When he seemed okay, I started to question him about what he had seen. He said it was simply a nightmare. I have been a teacher for a very long time, and I know that the dreamless sleep potion works wonders for troubled students. When he told me that it didn't work, I realized that there is only one possibility. Someone is manipulating Sasuke's thoughts from a distance. Would you any idea who it is?"

"Orochimaru," Jiraiya responded instantly. Dumbledore frowned and Jiraiya continued, "Orochimaru is one of our village's greatest enemies. He was once a fellow nin, but after being caught doing human experimentation, he was driven out of the village and declared a missing-nin. He joined a criminal group for a while before quitting and starting his own village, The Hidden Village of the Sound." Jiraiya crossed his arms. "Recently he attacked Konoha with most of his nins, as well as setting up an attack with Sand-nins. We've since repaired our treaty with Suna, but we refuse to create a treaty with Oto." Jiraiya paused, contemplating telling Dumbledore the next bit of information. "As I mentioned before, Orochimaru likes to study human experimentation. During this experimentation, he discovered a jutsu that basically makes him immortal. He does this by switching between bodies of people he's chosen. He's chosen Sasuke as his next vessel." The Uchiha stiffened, his eyes wide. Is that why Orochimaru wanted him? Simply to use his body?

Fucking creepy.

Dumbledore frowned. "I see. How does he choose his vessels?"

"He plants a curse mark on his vessels body. This mark exchanges life force for Chakra, thus giving the user a boost of extreme power. But this seal can also manipulate someone by changing their thoughts and desired. Or, in some people's cases, by making them want power." Dumbledore's frown deepened.

"I suppose it is only fair for me to tell you this in exchange. We have a boy at our school with something similar, almost exactly the same. The difference is that this boy's scar is completely accidental, and it gives the boy a certain level of insight into the enemies mind. But that's only if the enemy is feeling a powerful emotion at the time."

"Who is this boy?" Sasuke asked, interested.

Dumbledore paused before sighing. "It's Harry." Sasuke blinked, he was similar to that boy? Impossible!

Jiraiya blinked and his mind started running at full speed. A few comparisons later and Jiraiya barely resisted gasping. "Isn't it a known fact that Voldemort, the enemy I assume, has an affinity with snakes?" Dumbledore nodded, not quite sure where this was going. "...Orochimaru also has an affinity with snakes. He is called the Snake Sannin."

"So what you're saying is..."

"Yes, if these two meet, the result could be a catastrophe."

"This certainly isn't looking good."

—

"Sasuke-kun's not here!" Ino cried, "what if he got lost while traveling?! What if he's lost forever!? What if he's in pieces!?" She flailed frantically, as if running around the room would do anything. Naruto had given up explaining why Sasuke had left behind and was now waiting for the raven-haired boy to show up.

Oddly enough, Ino was still flailing by the time Sasuke and Jiraiya finally arrived.

And after the rest of the ninja had left.

She wasn't very observant.

—

Ron and Harry blinked simultaneously. Sasuke crossed his arms and scowled. "Yes, we came here because Dumbledore didn't want to stress your mother out too much by picking us up. Do you understand, or do I have to spell it out?"

"No, it's okay Sasuke, we understand. I thought this was more of a Weasley thing," Harry explained.

"Obviously not if you're here." Harry was about to retort, but he stopped. Well, the Uchiha did have a point. Sasuke paused, thinking about something for a moment before coming to a decision. "Harry, follow me, I have to discuss something with you." Harry hesitated, but eventually nodded. Sasuke lead the way to an abandoned room. Sasuke leaned on the wall. Harry stood there awkwardly.

"Your scar," Sasuke started, "you're being manipulated by it, aren't you?" Harry stared, what was he talking about? All it did was hurt him.

"I don't understand."

"Your scar, Voldemort can manipulate your thoughts through it, can't he?" Harry remained confused.

"What are you talking about? I haven't heard of that." Sasuke sighed.

"Dumbledore thinks that if Voldemort finds out about tonight, he'll start trying to manipulate you to do something drastic, something that could kill you or your friends." Harry grew enraged. What did he or Dumbledore know?! His ability to see what Voldemort was doing _saved _Mr. Weasley tonight! How could anyone say this after that?! "You and I are taking something called Occlumency with Snape-sensei when Winter Break ends." Harry's rage increased.

"_Snape?_ Why can't Dumbledore teach me? Why does it have to be him? Why do I have to take it with a _Slytherin?_" Sasuke dead-panned.

"Oh, I am so sorry I was picked for something I couldn't choose. Would you want me to apologize for the sorting house's decision?" Harry took a few deep breathes and effectively calmed himself down.

"I'm sorry. But why are you taking the classes with me?" Sasuke stayed quiet, he didn't feel like explaining it to the boy.

"We're in similar situations," Sasuke said simply before leaving the room. Harry stood there, wondering what the boy meant by that.

—

"Geez, how late did we arrive?" Sakura asked as she stepped over a Weasley child. According to Sirius, they had missed quite a bit of drama over the situation. The Weasleys had wanted to visit their father, but even his wife hadn't got wind of what had happened yet. The ninja thought that Sirius had made a wise decision having the kids wait. There would be less questions, and thus, less trouble.

"I wish you arrived earlier," Sirius mumbled, "It was hard to deal with four frantic kids. I'm so glad that Bill, Charlie and Percy weren't there, they would've probably knocked the door down." The shinobi snickered.

Even as the Weasley's slept in awkward positions, the shinobi stayed wide awake, for they were trained for this sort of stuff. They were still awake when Mrs. Weasley walked in through the door. She smiled and announced wearily, "He's going to alright, he's sleeping. We can all go and see him later. Bill's sitting with him now, he's going to take the morning off work." The half-awake Weasleys (and Potter) rubbed their eyes, trying to get themselves up.

"Breakfast!" Sirius said loudly (a bit too loudly for some of the tired red-heads). "Where's that accursed house elf? Kreacher! KREACHER!" The elf didn't come. Sirius scowled. "Oh, forget it then. So it's breakfast for, let's see, seven...? No, wait...fifteen...? No, it's sixteen. Yeah sixteen. ...Ah damn it. Molly, is there anyway you could help me out?" Harry stepped forward, at which Molly acknowledged. Soon Harry found himself in the grip of Molly. Jiraiya in the backround, whooped.

"I don't know what would have happened if it hadn't been for you, Harry. They might not have found Arthur for hours, and then it would have been too late, but thanks to you, he's alive and Dumbledore's been able to think up a good cover story for Arthur being where he was, you've no idea what trouble he would have been in otherwise, look at poor Sturgis..." When Molly finally let go and ran off to the kitchen to help Sirius he was approached by Naruto's odd teacher.

"So Harry," said Jiraiya, waggling his eyebrows. "It seems like older women are attracted to you, oh what I would give to have just the opposite! Young females. Yes...young females." Harry wasn't sure what compelled him, but with a new burst of strength he didn't know he had, he punched Jiraiya right in the gut.

If Jiraiya took the hint and left.

—

The ninja had spent the last three months in a completely wizarding environment. However, that did not mean they knew much about the outside wizarding world. Imagine their shock as they entered St. Mungo's for the very first time. It started with the cool watery feeling that went away the instant you entered the actual hospital. Following that was seeing the wizard with shoes eating his feet (though they mostly just laughed at that). They never knew _adult_ wizards could get themselves into such trouble. Wasn't it suppose to be 'get more experienced and wiser until you reach fifty and then it's all down hill?' Hell, an academy level student got into less trouble when they were throwing kunai and shuriken for the first time.

As they passed wards, they resolved to ignore and not to question anything that they saw anymore. They kept their heads forward and effectively shut out the rest of the world (minus the destination they were going and the people that they were traveling with.) They made it to Arthur's ward without trouble. The man sat propped up by a couple of pillows reading a muggle magazine. He smiled.

"Hello!" he said brightly, "Bill just left, had to get back to work, but he says he'll drop in on you later..."

"How are you Arthur?" Molly asked, bending down to kiss his cheek. "You're looking a bit pale."

"I feel absolutely fine." He held onto his arms. "If they could only take the bandages off, I'd be fit to go home."

"Why can't they take them off?" inquired Sakura curiously.

"Well, I start bleeding like mad every time they try. It seems there was some rather unusual kind of poison in that snake's fangs that keeps wounds open...They're sure they'll find an antidote, thought, they say they've had much worse cases than mine, and in the meantime I just have to keep taking a Blood-Replenishing Potion every hour. But that fellow over there." He pointed to the man in his room. "Bitten by a werewolf, poor chap, no cure at all." Sakura leaned in closely to examine the man's bandages.

"If only Tsunade-sama were here! She's find a way to help you both!"

Molly ignored the girl's musings. "W-werewolf?" whispered Molly, looking alarmed. "Is he safe in a public ward? Shouldn't he be in a private room?"

"It's two weeks till full moon. They've been talking to him in the morning, the Healers, you know, trying to persuade him he'll be able to lead an almost normal life. I said to him — didn't mention names, of course — but I said I knew a werewolf personally, very nice man, who find the contidion quite easy to manage..."

"What did he say?" asked George.

"Said he'd give me another bite if I didn't shut up." The ninja snickered. "And that woman over there." He pointed to the person on his left side. "won't tell the Healers what bit here, which makes us all think it must have been something she was handling illegally. Whatever it was took a real chunk out of her leg, very nasty smell when they take off the dressings."

"So, what happened Mr. Weasley?" Shino asked.

"Well, you already know, don't you? It's very simple — I'd had a very long day, dozed off, got sneaked up on, and bitten."

"Is it in the Prophet, you being attacked?" asked Fred, gesturing towards the Newspaper sitting innocently on Mr. Weasley's bedside table.

"No, of course not. The ministry wouldn't want everyone to know a dirty great serpent— "

"Arthur!"

"Got, er...me," Mr. Weasley said hastily, though they were sure that wasn't quite what he wanted to say.

"So where were you when it happened, Dad?" Arthur avoided the question with ease. The twins and a few shinobi started firing more questions, but they were all avoided. Apparently Mr. Weasley had experience with this kind of stuff. It wasn't until Fred went too far that they were kicked out by Tonks (who Hinata and Kiba were ecstatic to see. Shino showed no change of emotion, but the ninja suspected that he was happy to see her too).

When they were finally pushed out, they took to spying on the people within the room. Thankfully Fred and George had stocked up on extendable ears and allowed them to listen. The Shinobi were utterly amazed at the sheer amount of extendable ears they could fit in a normal civilian pocket. In the end, everyone except George (he'd hear it from Fred), Kiba (he had good enough hearing), and Hinata (she could read lips through walls) got the extendable ears.

"...they searched the whole area but they couldn't find the snake anywhere, it just seems to have vanished after it attacked you, Arthur. ...But You-Know-Who can't have expected a snake to get in, can he?"

"I reckon he sent it as a lookout," growled the ever paranoid Moody, "cause he's not had any luck so far, has he? No, I reckon he's trying to get a clearer picture of what he's facing and if Arthur hadn't been there the beast would've had much more time to look around. So Potter says he saw it all happen?"

"Yes," Mrs. Weasley uneasily said, "you know, Dumbledore seems almost to have been waiting for Harry to see something like this..." Sasuke felt a lump in his throat grow. Had Harry been having nightmares like he had? Had he been experiencing something oh so very close to what he had?

Were they really that alike?

"Yeah, well," said Moody, "there's something funny about the Potter kid, we all know that."

"Dumbledore seemed worried about Harry when I spoke to him this morning," whispered Molly.

"Course he's worried," Moody growled. "The boy's seeing things from inside You-Know-Who's snake...Obviously, Potter doesn't realize what that means, but if You-Know-Who's possessing him..." Harry's heartbeat increased and everyone stared at him fearfully. Was Sasuke right? Was he going to be manipulated? _What was going on?_

It was then that Molly decided to come on out of the room. "Harry, dear, are you alright? You're looking a bit pale." Harry nodded and attempted to reassure her, but they ended up leaving with a very doubtful woman.

—

"So...why are we singing and decorating a tree?" Kiba asked as he placed a silver ornament on the pine tree. At that moment, everything froze. Ron stood with several ornament in his mouth while Harry sat kneeling. The twins dropped the mistletoe they were hanging while Ginny stood in the doorway. Molly's hands covered her mouth. Ino rolled her eyes and wacked Kiba.

"Obviously it's a strange western tradition! Don't make everyone panic next time!"

"Sakuuuraaaa," Kiba whined, "You're a bad influence on Ino!"

"_I'm a what?_" Kiba's eyes widened.

"Nothing! Absolutely nothing!"

"I thought so." Naruto patted Kiba's shoulder reassuringly.

"You'll get used to it, trust me."

"You've never heard of Christmas?" Ron finally said after getting his mouth working. The ninja shrugged.

"Nope! Is it a big deal over here?" Tenten asked. Sasuke sighed.

"It's a tradition over here. I could never find when people began celebrating it, but it's celebrated by decorating homes and a pine tree. Usually citizens us tinsel, shiny balls, and lights to make their houses look better. On December 25th, the citizens give gifts to one another and it is told by parents to their children that a 'Santa Claus' comes to everyone's house, breaks in, and places presents under the tree.

The ninja laughed.

"Hey!" Fred and George cried.

"You children have never celebrated a Christmas in your life?" Molly asked, obviously surprised. "But what do you do during the holidays?" They shrugged.

"N-normally Molly-san, we just go on with our lives. I-I don't think we celebrate any holidays except Valentine's Day and White's Day," Hinata explained. Molly gasped in horror.

"My dears, we must have you celebrate the holiday this year! It would be a shame for you to never experience a Christmas in your life!" All eight of them suddenly felt as if a fate they had never intended had been sealed. A very scary looking fate...

Jiraiya would later find them covered in tinsel, surrounded by mistletoe with shiny ornaments surrounding them on all sides.

Jiraiya would also take a picture and post it on the Konoha bulletin board.

—

"Well hello Hermione," Naruto started pleasantly, "Why the hell are you here?" Naruto could be glad that Sakura was in the other room. Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes. Only he could greet someone so rudely, yet say it so nicely.

"Skiing's really not my thing. Where's Harry?" Naruto motioned for her, with only a second's thought, she followed him. He lead her up to the room in which Harry and the others had stayed in last summer. When the door opened, she found Ginny, Ron, Sasuke, and Harry all inside. To her disappointment, she saw that Harry was looking quite depressed.

"I came on the Knight Bus," Hermione explained before anyone could start questioning. "Dumbledore told me what had happened first thing this morning, but I had to wait for term to end officially before setting off." She ignored Ron's whisperings of the ninja and why they arrived before Hermione. "Umbridge is already livid that you lot disappeared right under her nose, even though Dumbledore told her Mr. Weasley was in St. Mungo's, and he'd give you all permission to visit. So... Harry, how're you feeling?"

"Fine."

"Oh, don't lie Harry. Fred and George say you've been hiding from everyone since you got back from St. Mungo's."

"They do, do they?" Harry glared at a wall, hoping that it'd somehow reach Fred and George.

"Well, you have!' Ginny said, defending her brothers. "And you won't look at any of us!"

"It's you lot who won't look at me!" Naruto smiled in a particularly evil way.

"You know you're acting a lot like a Slytherin right now!" Naruto motioned subtly to Sasuke. "A certain emo black-haired boy with a temper pr–Eek!" A kunai went sailing pass Naruto's ear and into the wall behind.

"Dobe. I do not have a temper."

"That's right! You don't have emotions!" Another kunai flew passed him.

"Next time I won't miss."

"Teme!"

"Both of you! Stop it!" Hermione and Ginny yelled together. Sasuke just 'hn'd' and faced away from the women. Naruto was reminded oddly of Sakura and winced. Maybe the girls were tutoring the wizards behind their backs? Scary scary thoughts.

"Very funny," Harry stated plainly, obviously not amused at the ninja's antics.

"Oh, stop feeling all misunderstood," Hermione scolded. "Look, the others have told what you overheard last night on the Extendable Ears— "

"Yeah?" growled Harry. "All been talking about me, have you? Well, I'm getting used to it." If anyone were paying attention, they would've seen Naruto twitch.

"We wanted to talk _to you_, Harry. But as you've been hiding ever since we got back— "

"I didn't want anyone to talk to me."

"Well, that was stupid of you. Seeing as you don't know anyone but me who's been possessed by You-Know-Who, and I can tell you have it feels." Naruto swore.

"_God damn, what else hasn't the old man told us_?"

"When did this happen?" Sasuke asked in a curious fashion. He went ignored.

"I forgot," Harry said.

"Lucky you."

"I'm sorry. So...So do you think I'm being possessed then?"

"Well, can you remember everything you've been doing? Are there big blank periods where you don't know what you've been up to?"

"...No." Harry said after a long pause.

"Then You-Know-Who hasn't ever possessed you. When he did it to me, I couldn't remember what I'd been doing for hours at a time. I'd find myself somewhere and not know how I got there."

"I...I'm not possessed." Harry breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe now he could get some sleep.

—

"Jiraiya, why are there children on the doorstep of my house?" The white-haired man smiled kindly and Sirius was reminded of his younger days with James and Remus. He could only imagine the trouble they would've got in if Jiraiya had been in their group. To even him...this was a very scary thought.

"Well, it is Christmas tomorrow, I figured I should surprise Ino and Tenten by have their teammates arrive! It's a Christmas gift without paying!"

"How can they see the house when it's under an enchantment?"

"Well, they have Neji with him, I suspect his Byakugan can see under the enchantment. I'm also pretty sure that Shikamaru's figured out what's happening. It's Lee and Chouji that are wondering what they're doing there."

"And where do you think they are going to sleep?" Jiraiya grinned.

"Under the Christmas Tree!"

"_What?_"

—

"What the hell is that under the tree?" Naruto asked as he approached the thing with caution. Four untidily wrapped bundles sat under the tree, having not been disturbed during the night.

"It's a genjutsu," Shino stated immediately, "Proceed with caution."

"You're so weird," Ino muttered. The pink-haired girl next to her raised her hands and made the appropriate hand sign.

"Kai!"

The wrappings fell apart and they stood in silence for quite awhile. They bursted out into laughter as what they saw finally was interpreted. There, on the ground, lay Lee, Neji, Chouji, and Shikamaru, every one of them in some sort of awkward position with genjutsu Christmas wrappings surrounding them. Oh how they wished for a camera at that very moment...!

Unfortunately, the humor didn't last long as Shikamaru sat up rubbing his eyes. "That troublesome man, knocking us out on the stairs." Neji, Lee, and Chouji followed his example and sat up, observing their surroundings.

"Who? On the stairs?" Ino questioned.

"Jiraiya-sama," Shikamaru replied with a yawn. Ino growled and noone made a move to stop her. Hey, if they were lucky, maybe she'd castrate him. Neji glanced around the room for a second time with his pupilless eyes.

"So you visit a country that decorates their trees and house for winter?"

"It's a holiday," Shino stated. Neji nodded and continued to examine the area around him.

Rock Lee looked like he was in pure heaven. "This place! It has such a youthful color!" Sparkles gleamed within his eyes and his hands clasped together. He took in the house with much enjoyment. He could certainly stay here for a while.

"I like this place," Chouji stated as he grabbed a candy cane from the tree. "I hope they serve a good dinner!"

"Ugh," a male voice groaned from the confines of the room upstairs. "Who's making all that noise?"

And so started the Christmas weekend of the ninja.

**End of Chapter**

—

**Explanation**

Naruto training sessions with Jiraiya - Since the manga doesn't show you what has happened in those two and a half years, I'm not going to show you and risk having Kishimoto dish out flashback chapters and having me be inaccurate. However, what has been told will be in the story.

Naruto's Jumpsuit - Yep, that's right. It does get worn down. I suspect Jiraiya wanted the thing gone.

Everything 'bout Sasuke: Alright, this is where I've been doubting myself. Did it seem realistic? Did it go too fast? What about when Jiraiya was telling Dumbledore about what he knew, does that seem right?

—

**Proof that people do improve in writing over time (you can just skip this if you're not interested in seeing how I wrote in fourth grade. **

A large house in England is where Cinderalla lives. From an outside glance you could see the owners are rich. But they do rotten things. The Cinderella we were talking about is a slave. Not in this century though, (Gladly) but, in the early 20th century. Cinderella is not but something has surges of anger. Her stepsisters are evil. But not evil enough to know someone's always watching.

It was a morning in England and it was time for Cinderella to get up and make breakfast. She was always asked to make breakfast but her sisters always said it was horrible. Today she was making breakfast and waiting for the mail. For some reason today felt special. When the mail finally came there was an odd letter there, An invitation to a ball. Cinderella needed a dress!

"Is it for us?" The sisters said together.

"What are we saying, it is all for us!" One of them said. "We are invited to a ball! Cinderella, start making dresses."

Cinderella was so excited she zoomed through all her chores and started making dresses. The first dress she mad was yellow, made with silk and cotton. Then a pink dress made with silk and polyester. Cinderella started making a dress for herself when her stepsister Beatrice came in.

"This dress is ugly, but it will have to do," Beatrice remarked. "Who is that blue dress for?"

"For me," Cinderella said simply.

"Who says your going? The invitation was for us, not you," Beatrice said happily.

It took a moment for Cinderella to take this in. Her usually cheerful spirit was broken, when she finally stopped crying when she heard faintly, "We leaving now." This made Cinderella cry more.

She ran out, she didn't know where she was going but she knew she didn't care who saw her. Cinderella felt someone following her.

As she turned around there was a fairy behind her. Cinderella had seen pictures of them in books and she looked nothing like them. Her glow changed from dark purple to black, and her eyes had a glint of evil.

"Hello, my name is Janet. I am your ev-- I mean, your fairy godmother," she said. Her voice sounded sweet.

Can you make it so I am beautiful and I can go to the ball," Cinderella said hopefully.

"But of course," Janet said. She waved her wand and Cinderella's dress cahnged. it went from a slaves dress to a formal yellow, brown, and black dress. Cinderella couldn't see it, but her dress was torn. Janet laughed evilly and waved her want to send Cinderella to the ball.  
As soon as she got there someone started laughing at her dress, another person laught, and another. Soon, the whole ball was laughing at her.

Cinderella ran as fast as she could out of there. Tears blinded her and her ears felt hot with fury. BUt it was her fault; it was her stupid fairy godmother's fault. She heard foorsteps behind her. Probably to laugh at her. Cinderella was about to turn around and tell the person off. But, as soon as she turned around she saw it was the prince.

"You forgot your shoe," He said.

She took it unhappily and walked off.

"Wait," he yelled. "Would you like to dance?"

"But why! I'm just a ugly little servant," Cinderella said shamefully.

"No, your not ugly," the prince said. He took her hand and started to dance. They dance for hours before he asked," I know this is sudden but would you like to marry me?"

"Yes I would love to."

Several months later they got married. Al thought there guardians protested against it. They got married anyway. But as soon as they kissed, the prince turned into a frog.

—

I have a feeling I just turned people off to my writing forever. xD


	10. Chapter 10

I'M REALLY SORRY. I'm in _two_ clubs, and somehow that's taking up TONS of my time. If you're interested, my schedule for this week is in my profile.

I also got a Speech and Debate tournament in two weeks and there's no way I can get in any writing in during that. One of the upperclassmen told me that the debate part of the tournament (which is on Friday) goes until midnight. Then the Speech part of it (on Saturday) goes from like 8-12.

I have to spend both of those days in a suit and high heels. Last week I had a Speech and Debate tournament. I spent _17 hours _in high heels. You ladies should know how much torture that is. Then on Monday I had an Orchestra concert.

Fun fun.

Just a note: ilu weekends.

**Chapter 10**

"Sasuke has moved," Orochimaru said with a hiss. A part of him couldn't help but feel confusion. Unless the Uchiha had mastered the fourth's technique, then there was _no _way that the boy could have done this. So how did he go from one place to another so quickly...? "This is our chance." Orochimaru lifted his hand and pointed at Tayuya, Jirobo, Sakon, and Kidomaru. "We're leaving." The five sound ninja nodded.

"Sasuke is going southeast. If we start now, we can reach him in a few days." Kabuto looked up from his notebook. With silent orders, the notebook was back in his pouch.

"Let's go."

—

**Language Change**

For hours, the ninja simply sat and talked. They discussed the going ons of the ninja world and Konoha. They discussed what magic was like, and of course, they talked about absolutely nothing. They babbled on and on, right up until Sirius came strolling down the hallway to the Christmas room. Even he couldn't help but gape at the sheer number of trained killers within his house. He promptly left the room.

"_Naruto_," Neji started, "_what happened to your–_ " Naruto raised up a palm and silenced the boy.

"_I don't want to talk about it_," Naruto said. Neji shrugged and looked away. Perhaps it was better if he didn't ask about the boy's lack of orange clothes.

"_So, what else is going on around Konoha_?" Ino asked, "_you didn't really tell us much. Just that Tsunade is making you work your asses off._" Shikamaru and Chouji exchanged glances.

"_Asuma and Kurenai are dating_." Simultaneously Team Eight (and Ino) let out an exclamation of '_WHAT?!_' and most of the mansion was woken up at that moment. Ino slammed her palm into the carpet.

"_YOU DON'T LEAVE THOSE KINDS OF THINGS OUT, SHIKA, CHOU_." Shikamaru rolled his eyes, muttered something and leaned back against the wall. Chouji stopped eating one of his endless bags of chips and shivered in fear. Behind Ino, Hinata's and Kiba's mouth opened and closed multiple times, yet no sound came out. Shino's sunglasses had fallen off in a fit of shock and his deep brown eyes went exposed to the world.

"_Y-y-you're k-kidding_," Kiba choked out. Shikamaru muttered something else and shook his head.

"_I'm not. They started dating at the beginning of the month_." Hinata's heart rate finally began to slow and she took a deep breath.

"_I-I never w-would've thought Kurenai-sensei and Asuma-sensei would get together_."

"_Neither did we._"

"Oi!" Ron yelled as he came down the stairs in nothing more then his pajamas. "Can't you guys...be...quieter..." Ron's speech slowed down as realization dawned upon him. "It's Christmas!" he cried before diving headfirst into the tree. Behind him, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione rolled their eyes. They entered the room, only to quickly dodge Fred and George, who decided to make the same entrance as Ron. Neji blinked before turning towards his cousin.

"_Are all holidays celebrated like this?_"

"_N-no, Neji-niisan_." Ron looked up from behind the wrappings to stare at the people he had seen, but was never introduced to.

"Oi! Who're these blokes?"

"They're our teammates and friends," Sakura explained. She pointed to the raven-haired, white-eyed boy. "That's Neji, he and Hinata are cousins." She shifted to point at the boy with the strange ponytail. "That's Shikamaru. The guy next to him is Chouji." Before she could introduce Lee, the boy did a flip and landed in front of them.

"I'm Rock Lee! Pleased to meet you!" The magic-learning ninja gaped for a moment.

"Lee, when'd you learn english?" Ino inquired. Lee grinned a nice guy grin.

"Why, one day after Gai-sensei had been going through his house. He found a scroll with strange symbols and together, after a long hard day of youthful work, he showed it to me and we began studying it! It took us six months to learn! It's quite the youthful language!"

"Oh, and he never taught Neji or I?" Lee shook his head.

"I apologize, Tenten-san! Gai-sensei wanted to keep it between him and I." Tenten shrugged.

"Wait, wait, you're Lee?" Fred said as he tore open another present.

"Yes! I'm afraid I do not know your names." Fred and George exchanged looks before hiding snickers. Lee didn't look the least bit confused.

"I'm Fred– "

"And I'm George."

"We're happy– "

"To finally meet you!" Lee bowed deeply.

"It is nice to meet you too! I'm certain we will become good friends in no time!" Fred and George mimicked Lee's bow, both of them excited to tell Jordan about discovery they had just made.

"Hm, Naruto, Sakura. It seems that you've got presents as well," Hermione observed. She lifted two packages from under the tree. "Oh! There's some for Hinata and Sasuke too." She kept taking lumpy packages out from under the tree until every single one of the expected ninja had gotten one. "I suspect they're Mrs. Weasley's sweaters."

"Sweaters?"

"Yeah," Harry said, sporting his own sweater. "Mrs. Weasley knits them herself." Naruto tore open his package and almost instantly he broke out into happy sobs. In his arms sat an orange sweater, very reminiscent of his old jacket. It even had his spiral on it! The only thing that could be called different, was the very top of it, which was _actually black._ He hugged the sweater many times before putting it on and rolling around with it. (He was _very _happy.) Sakura tore her present open and smiled. It was a pink sweater, which matched her hair perfectly. Hopefully this would keep her warm in the winter.

Tenten held out her own sweater. It was colored brown, to match her eyes, and in her humble opinion, excellently made, but not going to last in a fight. In any case, she appreciated the gift.

"Hn," Sasuke said, staring at his own gift with a mixture of distaste and longing. His mother used to sew his clothes...

"I think it's nice. I didn't really expect to get anything today." Ino held up the sweater in admiration. Her own was a simple purple color, much like her usual clothes.

"_Ino, what's that_?" Shikamaru asked.

"_A sweater. I hope it holds up in training. It gets freaking cold out in the morning._"

"_Interesting._"

"Hermione, do you know the translation spell?" The girl paused for a moment, before shaking her head no.

"No. I studied it after learning about the ninja coming. I assumed Dumbledore wouldn't want to be troubled by renewing the spell every month. However, it turns out that if you don't speak the languages that you are trying to translate, the spell won't work."

"Weird," Ron said, having obviously not paid attention. Hermione rolled her eyes and began picking up the abandoned wrapping paper.

She paused. "You guys definitely need to learn to clean."

—

"Thanks for the meal, Sirus-san!" Tenten called politely to the man. Instead of accepting the thank you, he glared at every single ninja at the table.

"Do you have any idea how stressful it was to make the meal for you bastards?!"

"Sirius!" Hermione scolded. He growled dog-like at Hermione. The Konoha Shinobi blinked and turned slowly back to their breakfast, being sure not to say a word to piss off the wizard.

"So...where's Ron-san's mom?" Fred and George exchanged looks.

"She's downstairs...crying." This got everyone's attention.

"Erm, Percy sent back his Christmas jumper."

"...Who?"

"He's our prick of an older brother." Sasuke twitched. "He recently got a high position in the ministry, and is now against the family. He believes and supports every Ministry action."

"I don't want to discuss this," Sasuke said, before leaving the room abruptly. Naruto sighed and let his head rest on the table.

"What's his problem?" Ron questioned with his mouth full.

"Erm..."

"He used to look up to his brother," Sakura said softly, "I remember Itachi and his friend coming over to the academy everyday to pick Sasuke up. No matter how much work either had that day, they would pick the boy up loyally. Then one day neither came. Sasuke waited all afternoon, refusing to interact with anyone until one or the other came. They never did. It was around seven that Sasuke finally gave up and started his slow walk home. When he arrived at the compound, he discovered something terrible." Naruto's teeth clenched, was Sakura going to tell them about that night? "His brother had snapped, the stress of being a prodigy finally got to him. Itachi killed a lot of people that night, including Shisui. Itachi left the village, forever, that night. He was thirteen at the time."

Hermione's hands covered her mouth in horror. "T-that's terrible! How could anyone do that?!"

"Makes our brother looks like a saint," Fred muttered to George.

"Sasuke-kun...hasn't really gotten over it," Ino continued, "so please don't mention this to him."

"We understand," Ginny said. She nodded her head firmly. Sakura smiled.

"Thank you."

"Who wants english copies of my book?!" Jiraiya yelled from a distant room, effectively shattering the serious mood.

—

"Now Weasley-san, stitches aren't bad. Almost everyone here has had them at least once. In most cases, they are very effective," Sakura said in a desperate attempt to calm the frantic woman. In retrospect, Sakura figured it was a bad idea asking to go to the hospital to see Weasely-san. "Letting an injury heal by itself is often the best way. If an injury is always healed by magic, how do you know if the magic isn't contaminating the body?"

Molly's eyes narrowed. "Are you saying that I've been contaminating my children with magic?" Sakura's eyes went wide. How did things like this always go bad?!

"No, no, I'm saying if there's too much magic, something may happen to the body. That's all! I mean, us ninja don't heal with chakra constantly. Just in serious cases!" Mrs. Weasley took a few deep breaths, and Sakura sighed. This was better.

"I'm sorry. Can you excuse us for a moment?"

"Sure!" Sakura said cheerfully, obviously suspecting she was going to apologize to her husband. "I'll go get some tea!"

The second she, the trio, Ginny, and Naruto (Jiraiya refused to let the others go) stepped out, Molly roared, "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!" Sakura slowly turned around, downright horrified.

"Nice one, Sakura."

"Eheheh, sorry. So er...where's the tea room?"

"Fifth floor," Harry replied. Hm, he had a pretty good memory.

The group made their way through the hospital, past double doors and onto a rickety set of stairs. Within the staircase room, portraits of grotesque looking people called out to them. They complained about every person that passed them and suggested strange and cruel remedies for normal body features. Ron in particular was offended when a portrait stated that he had spattergroit.

"And what the bloody hell is that suppose to be?" he muttered. The portrait traveled through the other portraits, keeping up with the boy.

"Why, 'tis a most grievous affliction of the skin, young master, that will leave you pockmarked and more gruesome than you are now— "

"What who you're calling gruesome!" Behind him, his sister and friends were snickering to each other.

"The only remedy is to take the liver of a toad, bind it tight about your throat, stand naked by the full moon in a barrel of eels' eyes— " This time everyone else in the group started laughing.

"I don't have spattergroit!"

"But the unsightly blemishes upon your visage, young master!"

"They're freckles. Now get back in your own picture and leave me alone!" The portrait of the Healer hmphed and left the _obviously _sick boy to die of his own disease. He paused as he got a good look at a certain pink-haired lady. He gasped.

"My dear! You must be a metamorphmagus!" he cried excitedly. "I've not seen one since I was first painted! You simply must show me what you can do!" Sakura paused, not quite sure of what he was talking about.

"Excuse me sir, but what is a metamorphmagus?" The man looked taken back, obviously not expecting this response. At this point, everyone had stopped moving. However, this was mostly due to the wizards and their curiosity of Sakura's hair.

"Why dear, it must've been so hard for you! Growing up as a metamorphmagus as a muggle! I cannot imagine the amount of teasing those blasted muggles must've caused you! A metamorphmagus is a wizard with the ability to change their appearance at will. From their hair color, to eye color, to everything else about a person. You, my dear, must be an metamorphmagus!" The portrait exclaimed eagerly. Sakura smiled and shook her head.

"I'm sorry sir, but my hair is natural. And trust me, I can't change my appearance at will." Without a genjutsu, at the very least. Hermione nudged Sakura forward before the portrait could go on and on about screwed up genetics. She waved good-bye and proceeded forward.

"I think this is the fifth floor," Ron muttered. Harry glanced at the sign and shook his head.

"No, this is the fourth, one more up." The boy took a quick look at the floor and gasped. Holy Crap. "Lockhart?!"

"Blimey!" Ron exclaimed, staring at the man.

"Oh my goodness!"

"Dattebayo!"

"Well, hello there!" he said. "I expect you'd like my autograph, would you?"

"Hasn't changed much, has me?" Harry muttered to Ginny.

"Er– how are you, Professor?"

"I'm very well indeed, thank you! Now how many autographs would you like? I can do joined up writing now, you know!"

"Er – we don't want any at the moment, thanks." Naruto and Sakura observed with interest, this was the first time meeting this individual. They didn't think of him as much a threat, honestly, how bad could a person be if they were handing out autographs?

"Professor, should you be wandering around the corridors? Shouldn't you be in ward?"

"Haven't we met?" The man ask. Harry blinked.

"Er...year we have. You used to teach us at Hogwarts, remember?"

"Teach?" Lockhart questioned. "Me? Did I?" A grin overtook the man's features. "Taught you everything you know, I expect, did I? Well how about those autographs, then? Shall we say a round dozen? You can give them to all your little friends then and nobody will be left out!" Naruto snickered. Oh man, that'd be a perfect gift for Neji and Lee. Before the egotistical man could start signing things, a head poked out of a door at the far end of the corridor.

"Gilderoy, you naughty boy, where have you wandered off to?" A healer stepped from the room and started heading in their direction.

"Oh Gilderoy! You've got visitors! How lovely! And on Christmas Day too! Do you know, he never gets visitors, poor lamb, and I can't think why, he's such a sweetie, aren't you?"

"We're doing autographs!" Lockhart declared. "They want loads of them, won't take no for an answer! I just hope we've got enough photographs!"

"Listen to him," said the Healer. "He was rather well known a few years ago; we very much hope that this liking for giving autographs is a sign that his memory might be coming back a bit. Will you step this way? He's in a closed ward, you know. He must have slipped out while I was bringing in the Christmas gifts, the door's usually kept locked...not that he's dangerous! But...he's a bit of a danger to himself. Doesn't know who he is, you see, wanders off and can't remember how to get back...it IS nice of you to have come to see him..." Ron, as desperately as he tried, couldn't get out that they were really going for tea.

The Healer pushed Lockhart into his ward and proceeded to explain his situation. They nodded absently as she went through the list of patients within the same ward as Lockhart. Before they knew it, they were being pushed through the ward door. Lockhart started babbling about his good looks, but the shinobi didn't pay attention. They were more interested in the patients that sat in the same room, then the blond dolt.

"Hey Sakura-chan, doesn't that woman over there look like she's half cat?" Naruto muttered. The pink haired girl took a good look and nodded.

"That poor lady," Sakura agreed. It wasn't until the woman barked that they decided they should probably get out soon. The Healer went from patient to patient, muttering words of encouragement. The Healer looked up.

"Oh! Mrs. Longbottom, are you leaving already?" They blinked, and looked up. Longbottom? As in the shy boy from the Gryffindor tower?

"Neville!" Ron cried. The boy jumped, having not expected anyone he knew to be there. "It's us Neville! Have you seen? Lockhart's here! Who've you been visiting?"

"A friend of yours, Neville, dear?" the elderly woman next to him asked.

"Ah, yes." The woman looked around and very easily pointed out who everyone is. It surprised Sakura and Naruto to find out that she knew even them.

Freaking psychic grannies.

"Neville's told me all about you. Helped him out of a few sticky spots, haven't you? He's a good boy, but he hasn't got his father's talent, I'm afraid to say..." She jerked her head towards the closed part of the ward.

"What? Is that your dad down the end, Neville?" Ron asked.

"What's this? Haven't you told your friends about your parents, Neville?" Neville blushed and avoided eye contact with anyone. "Well, it's nothing to be ashamed of! You should be proud, Neville, proud! They didn't give their health and their sanity so their only son would be ashamed of them!" Sakura and Naruto's breath hitched for a moment. That sounded just like what went on in the Elemental Countries.

"I'm...not ashamed."

"Well, you've got a funny way of showing it! My son and his wife," she said as she turned towards the group, "were tortured into insanity by You-Know-Who." Sakura and Naruto's eyes went wide.

What exactly had Konoha gotten themselves into?

—

**Language Change**

"Shikamaruuu," Ino whined, "how long are you staying? I don't want to be left alone with these guys, except Sasuke-kun, for another five months!"

"Thanks, Ino," Kiba yelled from his position by the fireplace. He had gotten a copy of Icha Icha from Jiraiya and was now reading it intently (and with a very red face). Although Sasuke wouldn't admit it, he was reading it over Kiba's shoulder, while trying to make himself seem cool. Needless to say, anyone who noticed were amused.

Tonks stuck her head in the room and smiled. "So guys, do you want dinner, or are you going to stay in here for the rest of the break?"

"Send the food up!" Naruto called. She snickered before entering the room.

"I'm surprised this place isn't completely trashed, especially when you're with nine destructive ninja." Naruto looked at the lady strangely.

"We're only destructive when we're hungry. We want food." She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Just for that, you're not getting dinner!" she teased. Naruto pouted.

"Hey Tonks-san, when Naruto and I were at the hospital, a guy in a portrait called me a metamorphmagus." Sakura fidgeted. "I don't know why, but it's bugging me. What exactly is a metamorphmagus? I know that you'd of all people would give me the best info..."

"Ah ha! So you finally decided to learn about me and all my awesomeness? Well, gather 'round ninja! For I have much to tell you!" Oddly enough, the ninja (besides Kiba and Sasuke) paid rapt attention. "Well, a metamorphmagi is a wizard who can change his or her appearance at will." Tonks made her hair go from long purple to a short bright green bob as an example. "Usually the child shows signs of metamorph powers as a baby with the inability to control what they are doing. This usually freaks out the parents." The shinobi snickered.

"I remember seeing a picture of myself with blue and green skin. Ah yes, good times, good times." Tonks smiled at the memory. "As the metamorphmagi gets older, they get more control over her powers, and by the time you enter they wizard training, they have full control of their powers. It sucks the first eleven years though, you can't go outside if you're even close to a muggle neighborhood." During the course of the explanation, noone noticed Sakura getting paler and paler.

"I think it'd be awesome to be able to change your appearance at will," Ino said. Tenten nodded.

"Ah, what else. Well, it's said that the ability to become a metamorphmagi isn't passed down through generations, but that's a lie. My great-grandmother was a metamorphmagi, and I got the gene. I bet there are other cases of the same thing, somewhere out there." Tonks blinked. "Sakura, are you alright?"

Sakura sat there, much paler then she really should be. Her pupils were contracting. "M-my grandmother, she never became a ninja, but...she always has tricks and things to change how she looked. The changes were always minor, but they were there. I...and...pink isn't my natural hair color." There was a long pause.

"AH HA! I KNEW IT!" Ino cried.

"M-my hair was originally a dark brown. My mom told me stories of when I was a child, she said that my hair gradually changed from brown, to white, and when I was five, it changed finally to pink. It's stayed there ever since. The same goes for my eye color, I originally had brown eyes." Everyone took in this info.

"B-but, if yo-you're a metamorphmagus, t-then you could change your appearance at will, right, Tonks-san?" Hinata asked. She nodded, obviously dumbstruck at this info.

"Chakra," Neji said instantly. "At the age five, that's when the chakra coils develop. You said before that your grandmother never became a ninja and she could control what she did. The problem is the chakra, that's canceling out the magic. If she had no access to chakra, I bet she would be able to do the same things as Tonks-san."

"Really?" Tenten asked.

"Sakura-san, do you give me permission to cut off access to your chakra?"

"No," Sakura said. She downright hated the idea of no chakra at all.

"Come on Sakuraaaa, I want to see you with brown hair," Ino whined. Sakura stood firm and shook her head no.

"Teme! Tell Sakura to seal her chakra points!" Naruto said loudly. The blond boy glanced over and snickered. Sasuke had given up trying to be subtle and was now sitting next to Kiba, reading the book and looking at several illustrations. Who knew the Uchiha could be such a pervert?

"Yes Sakura, seal your chakra points," Sasuke repeated absently. The girl was about to protest, but she paused, weighing the benefits. If she did it, she could find out if her mom really was as crazy as she thought, or she could gain the ability to change her appearance at will! But...if she had no chakra, even if it were just for a few hours, she would be no better then a civilian.

But...she could find out more about herself then she ever knew.

"I...I'll do it." Tonks nodded intently, very interested in this development. Neji's Byakugan activated and veins by his temple bulged.

"Get against the wall. Unless you want to be thrown into it." Sasuke and Kiba looked up, interested in who was going against the wall. Sakura did as she was told, albeit a bit hesitantly. Neji took a few steps forward, Kiba and Sasuke leaned forward, very interested in this development.

"Hakke Rokujuuyonshou!" Neji cried as he started hitting Sakura's tenketsu points. Sasuke and Kiba went back to their book, disappointed. Even Akamaru whined and curled up by Kiba's feet. Sakura let out a cry of pain as all of her tenketsu points were forcibly closed with a painful burst of chakra. Damn it, tomorrow she'd have tons of bruises. How could Naruto stand this during the Chunnin exams? Sakura collapsed to her knees and thanked the gods that she wasn't fighting Neji seriously.

"S-Sakura, are you alright?" Hinata asked, knowing very well the pain she was going through right now was excruciating.

"I'm...fine," she replied, a smile gracing her features. "Tonks-san, what do I do now?" The girl blinked, a bit surprised at the display of Neji's jutsu.

"Ah, you just have to think it, nothing too straining."

"What should I do?" Tonks shrugged.

"Try going back to how you looked originally. Just think of 'naturalness.'" Sakura nodded and closed her eyes. Almost instantly, from her roots to her tips, a deep brown color overtook the pinkness. A rich lighter brown color took over her eyes and her skin darkened a few shades. The room defended to complete silence. Even Sasuke and Kiba were staring.

"S-S-S-Sakura-c-chan?" Naruto gasped, shocked at his friend's new appearance. A thump later and Naruto was out. Kiba and Tenten followed. Tenten, however, passed out for a completely different reason. If Sakura put her hair up into buns, _they could be twins. _

"O-Oh my god. Sakura, for the love of god, red isn't your color!" Ino cried. She, unlike the others, wouldn't admit how utterly surprised she was, but she did want to lighten the mood. Sakura took the bait and scowled.

"Oh yes Ino, because I have been a brunette for all my life." There was a long pause.

"Alright, red was never your color."

"What?!"

"You are a metamorphmagi..." Tonks said, the realization finally hitting her. Her surprise suddenly turned into an evil grin. "Hey Sakura...want to go freak out everyone in the next room?" A pause.

"Hell yes!"

—

**Language Change**

"WHY HELLO GUYS," Tonks yelled loudly as she jumped into the room with bright green hair. "I HAVE SOMEONE I WOULD LIKE YOU TO MEET."

"HELLO EVERYONE," Sakura cried as she jumped in, looking exactly the same as Tonks. Silence ensued.

"Tonks, what...?" The two did a strange dance before finally ending with a pose and two very big grins.

"Haha, you were right Tonks-san, that _was _fun," Sakura said.

"Tonks-san? Wait, you're one of the ninjas?!" Ginny cried. Sakura nodded, her grin still plastered to her face. Slowly her hair turned into it's normal pink color. The wizards stared for a very long time.

"...S-S-Sakura...!?" Hermione choked out. "You're a metamorphmagi?!"

"Hey, it's new to me too. I didn't even know it an hour ago. Pretty cool, huh?"

"_You know Sakura_," Neji started (having followed the girl with some of the others) "_If you trained yourself proficiently in taijutsu and weaponry, you could seal off your chakra points permanently and become an excellent infiltration-nin_." Sakura shuddered.

"_No thanks. I'd rather not go against burley, horny ninja without chakra_." There was a pause.

"_Well...they won't __**always**__ be horny_."

"_Yosh! Sakura-chan! Join myself in chakralessness! You can follow Gai-sensei's and my own training sessions! You can become as strong as us! You can wear the jumpsuit of youth_!" Naruto imagined Sakura in a skintight body suit and started drooling. Sakura imagined herself in a skintight body suit and promptly gagged.

"_I'm sorry Lee. But I really don't think I can get very good at weapon mastery and taijutsu. Kakashi-sensei said that I'm a mainly genjutsu type. Sorry_."

"_Ah man, that'd be cool though_," Ino said thoughtfully. She stroked her chin thoughtfully.

"Sakura," Tenten said simply. The ninja stared at the weapon kunoichi for a moment, gaping. Right there was Tenten...with her hair down. Ino stared, secretly wishing that she had hair that shiny and nice. "Change your hair back to it's natural color." Sakura blinked, but did as she was told. Once again, a normal brown haired girl stood in the middle of a room.

"I KNEW IT!" Ginny, Hermione, and Molly all cried in a single perfect moment of unison. They all stared at each other a long while before they sat down again, pointedly avoiding each other's gazes.

Tenten moved from her spot and stopped right next to Sakura. "Compare," she commanded. Almost imstantly, Ino gasped.

"_You two look almost exactly alike! Are you secretly twins or something_?"

"_D-do you really think we're related_?" Tenten asked, almost hopefully.

"Huh?" Sakura questioned. Tenten blushed.

"_Sorry...It's just...it's just that I've been an orphan all my life and seeing someone that just might be related to me...i-is kinda amazing_." The girl avoided Sakura's eyes. Naruto paused and nodded slightly. Like her, he would be amazed if he met a relative of his.

Sakura smiled. "_Hmm, Haruno Tenten_? Sounds a bit strange, but I'm sure you'll get used to it." Tenten grinned and hugged the girl.

"_Thank you_!"

—

"Haruno Tenten?" Ron whispered into Harry's ear. "What the bloody hell just happened?" Harry shrugged.

"I'm not quite sure."

—

**Language Change**

"...Neji..." Sakura growled warningly. "What. Are you saying I can't change my hair back?" Her fist balled up, and the boy looked at her apathetically.

"Yes. You changed your hair to green, went to sleep, and your chakra came back. You shouldn't be able to change your appearance back unless you want your chakra cut off again." Sakura shuddered. She had no idea it was so painful.

She glared. "So you're saying I'm stuck with _green _hair?"

"Don't worry Sakura-chan, it looks amazing on you!"

"Stick it, Naruto." The boy flinched at her rudeness. She glared at everyone in the room before storming out.

"So...who wants to comfort her?"

—

"No! Shikamaru-kun! Chouji-kun, don't leave me!" Ino cried. The blonde girl jumped onto the larger male and following that, the lazy male. She hugged them both tightly.

"Lee-kun! Neji-kun! Don't leave me!" Tenten cried. The two girls clung to their teammates like syrup sticks to paper plates. Lee hugged Tenten back and started pseudo crying.

"TENTEN! MY YOUTHFUL TEAMMATE. WE SHALL SEE EACH OTHER VERY SOON." Neji hesitantly wrapped his arms around the girl and pulled back soon after.

"Tenten, we're scheduled to be back here in two months, we'll be back before you know it," Neji reassured. The girl growled.

"You better!" Taking a page from her adopted-sister, she hit Neji on his head. Behind her, the boys shuddered. Why, oh why were they learning from Sakura so quickly?! Neji had enough tact not to rub his head, but he took a subconscious step away from the girl anyway. Ino looked at her teammates hopefully.

"I-If Neji and Lee are coming in two months, that means you're coming in one month, right?!" she cried. She hugged them tighter.

"Troublesome woman," Shikamaru mumbled inaudibly. "Yes Ino, we'll be back in a month." Ino gave a cry of joy and she loosened her grip.

"You better have not been lazing around in the month between now and then!" The girl wagged her finger and boy sighed.

"I'll train, I promise, Ino." She smiled.

"Oi! Brats, the illegal portkey's here," Jiraiya called from the corner of the room. "Attach yourself to it before it disappears!" The four boys approached it and Jiraiya tossed it into Neji's hand. The boy caught it gracefully and held it out so the others could grab hold. The four, with their only free hand, gave a final wave before the classic tugging sensation was felt and they were, once again, back in Konoha.

"Good bye..." Ino said sadly, very disappointed that she didn't give Chouji and Shikamaru one last hug.

"Don't worry Ino, you'll see them soon enough..." Sakura assured, and Ino gave the pink-but-now-green-haired girl a smile.

"Thanks."

From a distance, Harry watched this scene with mixed emotions. He was not quite sure what he was feeling when he saw that the new ninja were leaving. There as a bit of relief...as they were not staying. But there was also sadness at Ino and Tenten's reaction, he knew it would be terrible to be separated from your best friends for so long.

But there was one particular emotion that struck him all at once. Winter break was ending and that meant extra lessons. With Sasuke and Snape.

Oh god, the world was conspiring against him.

—

**Language Change**

"_Hey Harry! I got kicked out of my compartment. Can I stay with you?_" Naruto asked the green-eyed boy bluntly. The boy blinked and took a step back.

"Huh? What did you say?"

"_Dobe, he can't understand you,_" Sasuke stated. Naruto blinked.

"_Eh? Why? And why the hell are you here?_"

"_A single compartment seats six people total. I got kicked out by the conductor._" Plus he didn't want to be with his fangirls. "_He can't understand us because our language charm wore off._"

"_It wears off?_" Sasuke massaged his temples.

"_Dobe...why did you think we'd have a teacher cast the spell on our forehead protectors every month or so?_" Naruto's palm found itself on Naruto's face.

"_Oh. Duh. So we're stuck speaking in a language that they can't understand for the entire train trip_?"

"_Yes_."

"_I'm going to have fun with this._"

—

"Can you understand a word they're saying?" Hermione whispered to Ron and Harry. They both shook their heads as they watched the exchanging of words (read: Naruto babbling to Sasuke and Sasuke only occasionally replying.)

"C'mon Hermione, you've got to have some sort of translation spell!" She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"We've been over this, to cast the translation spell, you've got to know both languages. Even if I cast it right now, the most they could say would be 'yes' and 'teacher.'" Naruto's body language and voice gradually rose to frightening loudness and flailing. The wizards knocked their heads against the cushioned head-rests.

Oh why, oh why did they have to inept at Japanese?!

—

Harry hesitantly made his way down the dungeons, where his first Occlumency lessons were to be held. He had been trying to follow Cho, but it turns out that he made a wrong turn somewhere and was now in the dungeons. Where he was suppose to be. Joy. Harry took a few deep breathes before making the final ten steps to Snape's room. He pushed the squeaky door open and entered hesitantly. A quick overview of the room told him that he was the last to arrive.

"Ten points from Gryffindor for being late," Snape sneered. "Shut the door behind you, Potter, and we may begin." With an increasing feeling of dread, Harry did as he was told. "Well, Potter, Uchiha, you know why you are here. The headmaster has told me to teach you Occlumency. I can only hope Potter is more adept at it then potions." Sasuke's inquisitive eyes followed Snape. "Now, Occlumency is a branch of magic that seals the mind against magical intrusion and influence."

"And why does Professor Dumbledore think I need it, sir?" A rationalized part of Harry rolled it's eyes at reallife!Harry and went back to reading the mental newspaper.

Harry realized that he should probably be concerned that his rationalization was becoming an entity in his mind.

"Surely even you could have worked that out by now, Potter? The Dark Lord is highly skilled at Legilimency— "

"What's that? Sir?"

"It's the ability to extract feeling and memories from another person's mind— "

Harry blinked. "So why's Sasuke here? Surely the Dark Lord isn't after him too." The disinterested boy made eye contact with Harry.

"According to Dumbledore, your Voldemort has a ninja equivalent." Harry paled. "That equivalent is after me. He's been manipulating me for the past month or so."

"What?!"

"Potter!" Snape said loudly, effectively cutting off anything else they might've said. The man sighed and continued. "The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not etched on the inside of skulls, to be perused by any invader. The mind is a complex and many-layered thing, Potter...or at least, most minds are..." Sasuke snickered and Snape smirked. The sinking feeling within Harry's chest buried itself deep into his heart. "It is true, however that those who have mastered Legilimency are able, under certain conditions, to delve into the minds of their victims and to interpret their findings correctly. The Dark Lord, for instance, almost always knows when somebody is lying to him. Only those skilled at Occlumency are able to shut down those feelings and memories that contradict the lie, and so utter falsehoods in his presence without detection."

"So he could know what we're thinking right now? Sir?"

"The Dark Lord is at a considerable distance and the walls and grounds of Hogwarts are guarded by many ancient spells and charms to ensure the bodily and mental safety of those who swell withing them. Time and space matter in magic, Potter. Eye contact is often essential to Legilimency."

"Why then, why do I have to learn it?"

"You never know when you are going to be face to face with your enemy. Always expect the unexpected and look underneath the underneath," Sasuke said.

"Uchiha is right. The usual rules do not seem to apply with you, Potter. The curse that failed to kill you seems to have forged some kind of connection between you and the Dark Lord. The evidence suggests that at times, when your mind is most relaxed and vulnerable — when you are asleep, for instance — you are sharing the Dark Lord's thoughts and emotions. The headmaster thinks it inadvisable for this to continue. He wishes me to teach you have to close your mind to the Dark Lord."

"But why does Professor Dumbledore want to stop it? I don't like it much, but it's been useful, hasn't it? I mean...I saw that snake attack Mr. Weasley and if I hadn't, Professor Dumbledore wouldn't have been able to save him, would he? Sir?" Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"We've been over this, Harry-san. If he finds out that this has been happening, then he may try to manipulate you. Make you think thoughts you never would've thought before." Snape nodded.

"The Dark Lord has been unaware of the connection between you and himself. Up till now, it seems that you've been experiencing his emotions and sharing his thoughts."

"Harry," Sasuke said sternly. "Shut up and accept it, whether you like it or not, this Dark Lord guy is going to manipulate you, it's in his nature. Can we start the lessons now?"

"Very well. Potter! Stand up and take out your wand." Harry hesitantly stood up and faced the teacher. "You may use your wand to attempt to disarm me, or defend yourself in any other way you can think of."

"And what are you going to do?"

"I'm am about to attempt to break into your mind. We are going to see how well you resist. I have been told that you have already shown aptitude at resisting the Imperius Curse...You will find that similar powers are needed for this...Brace yourself..._Legilimens!_" Sasuke observed as Harry froze and a glazed look came over his eyes. Snape appeared to be in a similar state, but in far more control then Harry was. The glazed look over Harry's eyes disappeared as the boy yelled and a spell ignited from the boy's wand.

"Did you mean to produce a Stinging Hex?" Snape asked.

"No."

"I thought not. You let me get in too far. You lost control."

"Did you see everything I saw?"

"Flashes of it. To whom did the dog belong?" Sasuke cocked an eyebrow.

"My aunt."

"Well, for a first attempt, that was not as poor as it might have been. You managed to stop me eventually, though you wasted time and energy shouting. You must remain focused. Repel me with your brain and you not need to resort to your wand."

"I'm trying," Harry snapped, "but you're not telling me how!"

"Manners Potter. Uchiha! Your turn." Sasuke hned and stood up, waiting to be hit. There was no point in dodging if the purpose of the exercise was to block spell from delving into his mind. The spell hit him, head on and Uchiha's eyes became glazed.

—

Sasuke found himself within a place he wasn't very familiar with. This place was his own mind. Sasuke had never seen within the depths of his mind like this before. It was fashioned oddly, as if three separate place met within one. But, the thing that stood out to him the most was something that he would never expect.

He was underwater with rocks jutting out in a messy circle.

Sasuke craned his neck to see the sky above; where the three worlds converged. One took up more than half the space, leaving the other two to seem minimal and useless. This larger section was much like the normal world. One bright yellow sun, one blue sky. But it was there that any reality left. The grass that had once stood an dark green was burning in fire. _Black _fire.

Sasuke swivelled his head to the right, to meet the smallest part of the three worlds, a sinking feeling overtook his entire body. The smallest part was red. A dark red sky, and a red moon. Anything and everything that may have been there was overtaken by darkness. Sasuke's gaze didn't linger very long.

The final part of the triscape was something Sasuke didn't really mind as much. Rain. A clouded sky overtook any sun or moon that may have once existed there, and raindrops fell in a harmony. A lightning strike and thunder shattered this. Sasuke turned away, not wanting to watch something unanimous be torn apart.

"Interesting," a new voice muttered. Sasuke recognized it as Snape-sensei. "Of all the Legilimens spells I've ever cast, this is a first. Uchiha, care to explain?" The boy shrugged.

"It's my mindscape. I don't know much about it myself." Snape stared at him incredulously.

"How can you not know your own mind?"

"Because meditation doesn't do shit."

"Language, Uchiha."

"Ohhh," A sweet womanly voice spoke, "It's about time this one saw within..."

"Now sister, don't get too excited. He might be like the other one." A larger sounding gruff man snorted.

"As if, this one seems weaker."

"Hush, hush. This one is _my _type. He will turn into something more sane than _your _type."

"Who's there?!" Sasuke yelled. Snape stood in a low stance and his wand was posed for attack. The voices stopped for a moment. In a moment, the sun overhead glowed brighter than usual. Both Sasuke and Snape let out a gasp as a beautiful woman was suddenly submerged in the water. The woman's black hair was held up in a traditional bun with chopsticks and other ornaments. Her silk brocade kimono was an annoyingly bright orange (which reminded Sasuke of Naruto). The girl leaned forward and smiled. Snape raised his wand and a red light flew out of the tip. The woman didn't move as it hit her and...went right on through. Snape's eyes widened.

"You must be Uchiha Sasuke, correct? I've been wanting to meet you for sometime now..." the girl said softly. She shifted her gaze to Snape. "I'm afraid I do not know who you are, but I thank you for bringing him here. However, you cannot stay for much longer. Surely you must feel the pressure upon your chest? That is this boy's mind rejecting you. You will be able to stay for another two minutes if you so wish."

"I'll stay," Snape said. He was curious about his student's state of mental health now.

"Very well." The girl's eyes moved onto Sasuke and a smile broke her previously solemn face. "You know Uchiha. You're quite cute." She poked his nose and Sasuke whacked the finger away. She didn't fail to notice the blush across his cheeks. "You, my dear boy, have been mislead for most of your life."

"Huh?"

"Uchiha Sasuke, have your heard the Hyuuga-Uchiha legend?" Sasuke's blank look told her that he hadn't. She took in a deep breath. "I am Amaterasu, the sun goddess." Sasuke's breath hitched. In the background, Snape rose an eyebrow. "I am not sure how aware of our story you are, but my second brother, Susanoo was exiled from the Heavens a very long time ago. He lived for many thousands of years, collecting knowledge, training people who deserved it, and just helping the world.

"Then one day, he traveled to the newly established Konohagakure. In that village, he came across something that fascinated him to no end. He came before a Hyuuga. Susanoo was so fascinated by the powers that these eyes possessed, that the Hyuuga easily tricked him. Susanoo became a slave to the Hyuuga." Her eyes flickered up to the stormy part of the triscape. "As a sister, I felt obliged to help Susanoo out, no matter how much of a jerk he was in the past. The Hyuuga and I fought for a long time. The Hyuuga used Susanoo's power, to defeat me, and I too was trapped. Less than a week after that, Tsukiyomi joined us."

"I still hate you Susanoo!" a younger sounding male voice shouted. Sasuke now identified the voice coming from red sky and moon area.

"Eh, you would've succumbed too."

"Both of you, shut up!" Amaterasu yelled. The triscape quieted. Snape still watched the goddess hesitantly. "Ah, the man who had imprisoned us used our power to a point that _he _held our very souls." Sasuke shivered. "That man defected from the Hyuuga clan to start his own clan, the Uchiha clan. As he married and had children, our souls separated, bit by bit. By your generation, we were lucky if there were a part of us that were together." She paused. "There was one person that was defied all odds and got more than the usual amount of one of our souls.

"That person was your brother." Sasuke gulped. Amaterasu opened her mouth to speak, but she spun around. "Sir, you need to leave within the next thirty seconds or you will become rejected from Sasuke's mind. If you do not leave, you may just become a nothing floating here." The greasy haired man took no second guess and severed his mind connection with Sasuke. In the real world, the Uchiha closed his eyes and fell to the ground in an undignified heap. Harry looked up.

"Sir, if you don't mind me asking. What took so long?" Snape shook his head.

"I am beginning to doubt if that boy is even human," Snape said. Harry blinked. "Get into position, Potter. We are not done here."

Back in Sasuke's mind, the goddess continued her explanation. "Your brother gained the entire mind of Tsukiyomi. He didn't discover this until he was around eight. I'm fairly certain that Tsukiyomi is the person that drove your brother into insanity."

"Hmph, he deserved it," the young male voice stated. "Look kid, I don't care how evil and selfish you think your brother is. He is a fucking _brat. _He deserves a fucking _spanking._" Sasuke stayed silent for a while before snickering.

"Yes, we know you're screwed when it comes to who you are associated with. But shut up about it and let me continue talking."

"Fine, bitch."

"Go die." The girl made eye contact with Sasuke (who was feeling quite confused.) "When your brother killed the Uchiha clan, our spirits were freed. The little parts that once made us nothing more than a headache came together and created most of a person. There was one little problem. You and Itachi still lived. I was drawn towards you, and Tsukiyomi was drawn to your brother. Hence why I'm here now."

"But if this Tsukiyomi is with my brother, how can I hear him speak? What ever happened to Susanoo?" Amaterasu paused.

"My brothers and I have a mental link. By communicating with me for the first time, you are open to that connection. If your brother were to go into mediation right now, he would be able to speak with you from many distances away."

"_What_?!" Amaterasu laid her hand on Sasuke shoulder and the boy stiffened.

"I know you hate your brother, but Tsukiyomi is too much of a babble mouth and he tells us when Itachi's about to go into mediation." Sasuke was a bit amused that Tsukiyomi didn't bother to reply. "As for who Susanoo is with, we don't know. Susanoo doesn't want to tell us, we don't make him. He'll tell us when he needs to." Amatesaru fell silent.

"How could Snape-sensei understood what we were saying when he doesn't speak our language?"

"Every single person in the world has one a single language within a mind. It's universally known, but if you were to go to your physical body and tried to speak the same language, you would fail miserably. It's one of those mysteries about the human mind."

"Interesting." Amaterasu frowned.

"Sasuke, you should probably get going soon. But before you leave. I must settle your thoughts for the time being." She took a deep breath. "When your brother murdered the Uchiha clan, he told you that the only way to obtain the Mangekyou was to kill your best friend." She shook her head. "This is a lie, Sasuke. No matter what you decide to do with your life, do not ever do something so drastic as kill someone precious to do. Those precious people are what keep you going. By killing them, you are killing yourself. Please...I don't want to see you ruined, just...don't do it."

"Amateraru...what is the other method to get the Mangekyou?" The girl smiled warmly and ruffled the boy's hair. This time, Sasuke didn't slap her hand away.

"If you want to reach me again, just get into a meditation. I'll tell you when you're ready." She placed her hand around Sasuke shoulder and hugged him. The boy scowled at the lack of useful information and tried to pull away. As Amatesaru let go of the boy, she nudged the boy back into his physical body. "See you soon, Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke opened his eyes to see something he didn't expect. He was in his bed, changed, and tucked in. One part of him hoped that it wasn't Snape that did all of this.

The other part of him told him that things were about to get _tons _more complicated.

**End of Chapter**

—

Well, I'm bringing a whole new light to internal conflict.

But really, the first part of the story (beginning to end of winter break) was simply setting everything up, getting everything ready for _this _part of the fic. I can't wait. But I can wait for this part. I gotta shitload of explaining to go through.

_Kurenai/Asuma_: IT'S CANON. THEREFORE IT'S ADDED. I don't want people getting angry at me being all, 'hay u said no pairings!!!11! liar!!!'. If it's canon at the time period, I will add it in.

_Naruto's Sweater_: Yep, for those of you that guessed right, it is the rough design of the Shippuuden Jacket. The only difference being that one's a jacket and the other's a sweater.

_Sakura telling people about Sasuke's past_: I figured with Sasuke being especially emotional at this point, he would react to things differently then if he were like he was at the beginning of the year. So when he acts strangely, it's left to the others to explain it. I figured Sakura would explain a watered-down version of the tale to explain just about everything Sasuke's done and why he is who he is.

_Metamorphmagus Sakura_: I really do think I just committed some sort of sin. I just explained why Sakura's hair is the way it is. Anyway, other parts concerning Sakura's part. At one point, she mentions that her hair is natural, and then later she admits that brown is her natural color. I did this because she has known that pink was her hair color her entire life, so she assumes that she was born this way. She knows brown was her birth hair color simply because of pictures and what her mother has told her.

Adding to this, most humans have chakra coils in the series, it's stated somewhere in the series. However, if a civilian doesn't use them, they'll rot and become useless. Hence why her grandmother can use her powers, but not Sakura.

And yes, her green hair is going to stay.

_Tenten:_ I think I committed another sin.

_Sasuke, Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi, and Susanoo_: This was totally thought up at the last minute. Normally I don't do that, but it came to me as I started this section and I went with the flow. I'm actually pretty proud of it. Why?

1. I could've just made Sasuke relive some more of his traumatic childhood and then Snape would be all 'D: holy crap Sasuke no wonder u emo.' (As a matter of fact, I was planning to do this).

2. I invented a new word. Triscape.

I'm not sure how many of you are aware of the Shinto legends, but it's pretty important with Itachi. Tsukiyomi is the moon god, Susanoo is the storm god, and Amaterasu is the sun goddess. I would really recommend reading up on the Shinto legends when you get the chance, I really don't feel like explaining it all.

I'm also pretty sure that I raped the Shinto Legends into oblivion.

EDIT: I should mention this, after getting an angry review. Sasuke has absolutely no control over Amaterasu. She doesn't give him power, she doesn't (and won't) help him along more than teaching him a couple of reasonable (AKA unexpected, but weaker than Chidori) jutsu and offering him advice and guidance.


	11. Chapter 11

I was gonna reply to reviews, but I realized I have an essay due in two days and that this would delay the update even more. So, as a whole, I'll address you all.

So it turns out people don't really like what I added to the end. Go figure. But I ain't changing it. Really guys, have some faith. Amaterasu's just another subplot. I'm not making Sasuke super powerful, think of her as nothing more than an internal guardian angel.

Oh, and about Sakura's green hair. Really, it's just for comedy.

Moving on. UPDATE TIMES. Well, winter break's coming and I fully intend to churn out another chapter or two before winter break ends. After that though? Hiatus, I'm sorry to say. Well, I'm in speech and debate, and that pretty much just murders any free time you have on the weekends. So after the tournament after my birthday, we've got tournament, after tournament, after tournament, all in a row. So basically, I'm booked on the weekends. But after March, everything's done and I can get back to writing chapters.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Harry Potter.

**Chapter Eleven**

"I think the world has a grudge against Orochimaru-sama," Sakon whispered to other four. About 200 meters away, Orochimaru fumed and punched and murdered anything that came near. Frankly, the total was getting pretty damn high (four cats, two dogs, a snake, bat, a few worms, a toad, three snails, and a slug).

Despite all the training the three had gone through since they got to the strange forest...they couldn't find the boy, once again. They had been lead to this large town, much like the LA they had first encountered, the only difference being the strange accents these people held.

They guided themselves to a single street and despite the chakra signature of Sasuke being _right there. _He wasn't there at all. According to his signature, he was in between two buildings, yet the only way that could be possible is if Sasuke had become very flexible, or if it was a crappy attempt at murder (which didn't make sense cause his chakra signature was very strong). So, they waited for any sign of Sasuke leaving the building.

It never came.

Well, it did come, but it was more of a going from one place to another _in seconds_, which shouldn't be possible. What kinda world were they in or what kinda jutsu had Sasuke learned?

"Er, Kabuto-san, you do realize that we should've gotten to Sasuke a long time ago, correct?" Tayuya whispered. "Don't you think Orochimaru-sama's going to go nuts when he realizes the deadline has passed?" The silver-haired boy pushed his glasses up.

"We've gotten to him soon enough. Those nightmares and flashbacks should be enough to break his mental stability for a long time. So long as the Kyuubi-brat stays away, he should be ripe for the picking when he finally gets to Orochimaru-sama. If Orochimaru-sama can stop going on a rampage, I will suggest that he manipulates his flashbacks to a point where Orochimaru comes to mind more and more often. Possibly starting with a pale snake, and working it's way up to Orochimaru telling the boy how he should come to the Sound."

"Think it'll work?" Jirobo questioned. Kabuto nodded.

"That is...if Orochimaru can get over his rampage," Sakon muttered. "Speaking of which, we should probably start running now." The five glanced over at Orochimaru, who was quickly catching up to them.

"...Good idea."

—

"Why are they all staring?" Sakura whispered to Naruto and Ino. Ino rolled her eyes.

"Maybe, Sakura, it's because you've had pink hair for the first three months and you suddenly have green hair." Ino looked around. "Hell, I bet those Slytherins over there have no clue who you are." The blonde paused. "Man, I wish I were you." Sakura blinked.

"Why?"

"Because all you have to do is lose the cloak and you can go hit on some of the cuter Slytherin boys!" The green-haired girl rolled her eyes.

"Is that all you think about Ino?"

"No. But that would get you away from Sasuke-kun!" In between the two girls, Naruto shuddered as he smelled stench of a catfight. As slipperily as a snake, he got out between the two, right as they were getting ready to start tearing things to bits (and had Sasuke or Kiba been near them, they would've probably redirected the girls to their own clothing).

The girls were in an intense glaring match when Naruto spotted just the perfect boy to get himself out of being the judge of this catfight.

"Hey Harry!" Naruto called. The black-haired boy stopped and waited for the blond to catch up. "Let's got this way!" Naruto grabbed Harry's cloak and pulled him through long corridors. Harry sighed as his books were thrown onto the floor. Thankfully he hadn't brought his ink, so his books wouldn't be too badly damaged. As Naruto dragged him around a corner, Harry struggled as much as he could to get free, but it was all a useless effort.

"Naruto, let go!" Harry cried. To his utter surprise...they stopped. Naruto looked at the boy and grinned.

"Sorry, had to get away from Sakura-chan and Ino-chan before they started dragging me into their fight."

"...So why'd you drag _me_ away?"

"Cause we're in the same dorm, we spend classes together, we've spent winter break at the same house, and I don't know who you are!" Ho yes, plot to become BFFs with Harry was underway. He ignored the fact that he should've done this a while ago.

Harry paused. "I'm Harry."

"I'm sure you are. But can you tell me about your likes, dislikes, hobbies, classes, _anything?!_" Harry blinked.

"Erm, well...I like Quidditch? I dislike Umbridge. I like to play wizard's chess and we share the same classes." Naruto clapped his hands.

"That's a start. Now let's hurry because I think I hear Ino and Sakura coming this way." Harry just shook his head as he was being drug along for the second time that day. Naruto was certainly a one of a kind person.

—

"I have a feeling we forgot something..." Sakura muttered as she sat down in the Ravenclaw Dormitory's couch. She paused and ran her fingers through her ugly green hair. She fiddled with her wand as pretty red sparks came out, vaguely entertaining her. She glanced at the red sparks seriously before it suddenly came to her. "Holy crap!"

"What is it, Sakura-chan?" Tenten asked, hoping to find something interesting in the day.

"I totally forgot! We're suppose to be studying magic!"

"...Duh," Ino said.

"I mean, remember that study we wanted to do, the one involving taking random students from their dorms and making them cast spells as Sasuke-kun and Hinata-chan studied what happened?" There was a pause.

"No, I don't remember. Is that green hair getting to you?" Sakura blinked as she remember...only she had planned it out, so only she remembered.

And it was nearly two months ago that they decided on it.

"Arg! Just come on, we've gotta find the boys!" The other three girls shrugged and followed the greenette.

—

"Naruto, Tenten, Ino, Kiba!" Sakura said as she stood upon a table. The four kids looked up at her with little interest. "I need to you to gather seven students from each house. Naruto, get kids in the years one through seven from the Gryffindor house. Tenten, get seven from the Hufflepuff House. Ino, seven from Ravenclaw. Kiba, seven from the Slytherin house. Tell them to report to the free room by Flitwick's class at two in the afternoon!" The four sighed and unenthusiastically walked off in four different directions.

"Shino, Hinata, and Sasuke-kun, we're goin' to the library!"

"Hai."

Sakura sighed as she jumped off the table. Well, best get to work then!

—

Kiba slinked around the dungeons as slyly as well...a ninja. His puppy, Akamaru rested on his head and Kiba was relying on the puppy to tell him if anyone was coming. Thankfully they had not come across anyone like this. The puppy growled slightly and Kiba stopped, someone was coming. Quietly as possibly, he muttered something to Akamaru. The dog barked back in response. Ohoho! Someone he needed was coming!

He crawled up onto the ceiling and at the same time, got a long rope out of his supply pouch (which he had gotten from Hogsmeade, odd). Using his sometimes stealthy ability, he moved to the top part of the wall and slinked over to the other room. He waved the rope around before dropping it around his captive. He grinned as he pulled and he felt the rope tighten around the boy.

He leaned forward and whispered. "Caught you, Goyle." The dumb fifth year boy looked at Kiba in utter fright as the boy tightened the knot. Using his epic ninja strength, Kiba lifted the boy up and drug him to a closet where he would stay till he got the other six people he needed to find.

Goyle would end up staying in there for the next two hours.

—

Unlike Kiba, Naruto, Ino, and Tenten had a much easier time getting people to participate. All they had to do was find the people and convince them that it wasn't torture techniques they were working on. Easy peasy! It's a shame that Shino, Sakura, Sasuke, and Hinata (who broke the S theme and made Sakura bit riled up), were having a tougher time. Each of them were looking through a first year charms book and they just couldn't decide on what to do.

"Honestly, we should do the levitation charm! It's so easy!"

"Sakura, we're going to be working with first years too, it's very likely to assume that they're too inexperienced to cast the spell and may end up levitating."

"But we'll have seventh years with the expertise to bring us down!"

"Sakura-san...s-shouldn't we a-also i-include other form of m-magic?" Hinata asked. "I-I mean, w-what if th-these types of s-spells have different properties?"

"That's a good idea Hinata, but Charms is the easiest class, therefore our younger test subjects will be able to preform the spell."

"I agree with Hinata," Sasuke muttered as he reached over and jacked a transfiguration book from a studious first year.

"I agree with you Sasuke-kun!" Hinata rolled her eyes out-of-characterily.

"But what spells should we do?"

"Just do the levitation spell," Sakura said.

There was silence. "Fine. But if you hit your head on the ceiling, we will not help you."

"But what about the transfiguration thing?"

"Doesn't McGonagall-sensei teach the toothpick into needle thing at the beginning of the year? Why not that?"

"Where are we going to get toothpicks?"

"...Transfigure them?"

"...That works."

—

"Hello there precious Hogwarts students!" Sakura greeted as she, yet again, stood on a table to show that she had more authority then those shinobi behind here. "Slytherins! Introduce yourself!" The seven boys and girls hesitated and took a step forward in their row. "State your name and year!"

In succession, the boys and girls stated exactly what they were suppose to. Sakura nodded and wrote all this down as each student introduced themselves. The same thing went on with the Ravenclaws, Gryffindors, and Hufflepuffs. Each of them looked just as confused as the other.

Sakura looked down her list of names and she could only recognize a few. These few being Luna Lovegood (who, to this day, Rock Lee never seemed to shut up about), Neville Longbottom, Goyle, and Cho Chang. She turned around.

"Hinata, hand me the list of spells." The Hyuuga took a piece of paper out of her jacket and handed it to Sakura. She tilted her head as she realized _Sasuke had terrible handwriting. _She looked between her crush and the paper and she shook her head. Nah, he must just be having an off day. "Alright students. We're conducting a test, comparing our power source to your magic. We dunno how different they are, so everything we're doing now is gonna help us figure this out. Don't be surprised if we ask you guys to come here again at a later date." The Slytherin's scowled.

"Alright, Hinata, tell me what you see!" The girl made a hand seal.

"Byakugan!" She muttered. The world became something else entirely as the walls became translucent and people became no more than chakra. She focused on the Slytherin's first. She blinked. "_T-they looked brown._" Most unusual, as most human chakra were light blue.

"_That all? How much do they have compared to each other_?" Sakura asked. Hinata, using her bloodline to it's fullest extent zoomed in on the seventh year Slytherin. She blinked as everything became clearer and as the brown turned into something else.

Lots of colors.

She gasped. Sakura looked at the Hyuuga concerned. "_What do you see_?"

"_L-lots of things_." The ninja gave her a confused look. _"Their magic I can see clearly. But...it's not all a single color. Like the seventh year Slytherin, his magic is a dark green in his arm with little bits of light blue and red splattered around. His left arm is primarily red and the rest of his body is a strong combo of green, light blue, red, purple, orange, and bright yellow."_

"_What? Do you see any chakra?_"

"_N-No. I think it's beneath all those colors, or perhaps blended in._"

"_Interesting. What about the others?_"

"_I-it's basically the same thing. The only difference is the arrangement of the colors. It's different for everyone, they all, however, have the same amount of magic within them._" Sakura rubbed her chin thoughtfully. This was certainly interesting.

"Sasuke-kun, your turn. Sharingan those suckers!" Hinata turned off her Byakugan as Sasuke's was activated. He shook his head after a few seconds of examination.

"The Sharingan cannot see magic, all it can see are faint chakra movements. Either the magic is not moving or my doujutsu can't pick it up. I'm fairly certain it's the former." Because there was no way Sasuke was going to admit that the Sharingan was inferior to the Byakugan. Sakura nodded as she wrote this all down. Well, now for the fun part.

"Shino, try and take magic from the wizards." The silent boy nodded and let a single bug fly from his cloak. The last thing he wanted to do was to freak the wizards out with a flurry of bugs.

The single insect made its way to an unfortunate Ravenclaw and before she could even notice it, it landed on her hand. The Kikai bug, knowing very well the danger of landing on a female, took a quick bite, trying it's hardest to suck some magic out. The result?

It exploded.

The surprised Ravenclaw jumped and Shino silently mourned the loss of a perfectly good bug. Sakura blinked and noted this in her notebook. After having gathered the necessary data, she looked up. "Alright, because I'm a genius– " Shino scowled while Hinata and Sasuke frowned. "– I've decided to make four stations. One for each house. Over in the Slytherin corner, we've got potions set up!" The wizards turned towards a corner which was haphazardly decorated with ribbons (which was really a genjutsu) in the Slytherin colors. "In the Gryffindor corner, we've got transfiguration set up. Within that station, you'll be transforming toothpicks into needles!" She cheered while the wizards and ninja stared at her oddly. "At the Ravenclaw Table, we've got pillows. You're going to practice levitation charms! Yay again!" They shook their heads at her. "And at the final table, the Hufflepuff table, we have Defense Against the Dark Arts spells! There, you will pick a book and cast the easiest spell for you. Everyone, line up at the Gryffindor corner!"

"Shouldn't we go to our own stations?" A student asked. She shook her head.

"Nope, we're testing for magic, not for the student's ability to make a potion or cast a spell or something. Now line up!" Remembering that they were dealing with ninja, the students immediately did as they were told. Sakura had a ghost of a smile when she jumped from the table. "Alright, Byakugan and Sharingan on!" The two bloodline limits activated while the other ninja watched with interest.

"Alright, this is a first year skill. You're gonna transform that toothpick into a needle. If you cannot do this, you are either a first year, and that's acceptable, or you suck at Transfiguration. I want to start this by years. First years, it's your turn."

The four representatives from each house stepped up, looking very nervous. The Ravenclaw boy waved his wand and the toothpick became silvery and sharp. Hesitantly, the other first years followed suit. Hinata blinked in surprise.

"_Odd. Whenever they cast the spell, the red colored magic flows from it's location to the person's arm. How well did the Gryffindor boy do?_" Sakura glanced over to the toothpick needle thing and took it in.

"_It's perfectly made._"

"_That's the boy that had a lot of red in his arm._" Sakura shook her head. This was strange.

"Alright, second years up!" The process repeated right up to the seventh years and Hinata would read off what she had seen. Sasuke was pointedly ignored up until the final kids finished.

"_Sasuke, did you copy the spell?_"

"Yes." Sakura nodded. "Off to the Hufflepuff station then!"

As they moved from station to station, they got similar results. As it turned out, transfiguration was associated with red. DADA with purple. Charms was light blue. Finally, potions took the obvious color of green. Unfortunately, they had to let the students go before they could figure out what the colors yellow, orange, and dark green meant.

Sakura was simply glad at the information she had gathered and she knew that a deeper analysis would do much good. However, as she sat at a table, all alone, a sudden shiver came over her. As if she were about to unravel something unimaginable.

—

School and students alike both got back into the mood to learn and the mood to study about a week after they got back. Teachers, lenient on the first few days, started handing out detentions and subtracting points. Sakura, through it all, began studying her notes. A few days passed and with all the homework assignments that were piling up, Sakura sighed as she threw the notebook into her suitcase, not to be seen for quite a long time.

After a long day of training, Sakura stretched as she took an open seat near Hermione. Hesitantly, she leaned over and read over the girl's shoulder. Hermione didn't notice, Sakura had started doing this a week ago and she was used to it now. Frankly, Hermione had no idea why Sakura's copy of the Daily Prophet never arrived (on time), but it wasn't something she cared about. Honestly, what motives could anyone have to make someone's mail late?

"...Mass Breakout from Azkaban...?" Sakura said, her throat going dry. Really, everything was fine the first semester, why couldn't it stay that way!? With a sigh, she looked over the headline.

"Ministry fears Black is rallying point for old death eaters?" she said with a blink. Black? As in Sirius Black?

"Black? Not–"

"Shhh!" Apparently Harry could read into her mind or something. Weird.

Sakura read the rest of the article with Ron and Harry looming over her should. This article went on and on spewing stuff about how Sirius Black escaped from prison two years ago and how he must've told these death eaters how to break out. Sakura looked up at the two, with an expression of confusion crossing her features.

"So they're blaming this on that nice man at that house?"

"Apparently," Hermione said dryly. "There's not much Fudge can say on this matter. His only other option would be to admit that You-Know-Who's coming back. But that would've been the truth, and apparently he can't tell the truth." Hermione turned the paper to find more of the article, and Sakura followed her, eager to delve into this plethora of new information. Hermione stopped on one page and went slack-jawed.

"Tragic Demise of Ministry Worker..." she said slowly, her eyes widening gradually. Harry, who had started looking away turned his attention back to his friend.

"What?" She read the article aloud, and Sakura shook her head. An obvious attempted murder.

"Bode? It rings a bell," Ron stated.

"We saw him," Hermione said quietly. "He was in St. Mungos...same ward as Lockhart... We _saw _the Devil's Snare! The healer said it was a Christmas present! I-if we had just noticed it...!"

"Who expects Devil's Snare to turn up in a hospital disguised as a potted plant?" Ron retorted. "It's not our fault, whoever sent it to the bloke is to blame! They must be a real prat, why didn't they check what they were buying?"

"It was a murder," Sakura said strongly. "If this Devil's Snare is as deadly as they say, it's not easy to get your hands on it. This person knew what they were doing or what they were buying."

"Bode...I met him..." Harry said slowly, as he recollected something. "I saw him at the Ministry with your dad..." Ron met a burst of revelation.

"I've heard Dad talk about him at home! He was an Unspeakable! He worked in the Department of Mysteries!"

—

A month passed very quickly for all of the ninja. Sakura, still getting pounded by bookwork had no time to even glance at her magic notes. And as Shikamaru stated, they came and went and Ino could only leap in joy as she spotted her friends. The meeting was standard, and nothing too major came out of it. The new year entered it's second month and an entire new issue came to light.

"SASUKE!" A long, loud female voice reached his ears and he shuddered. He knew that tone... A girl, dressed in the Ravenclaw uniform came running up to him panting. He just stared at her and a blush rose to her cheeks. "Ah, I-I'm Melody a-and I was wondering if you'd go out with me to Hogsmeade on Valentines Day!" All around her, girls glared. Sasuke sighed.

"No." The girl's eyes widened in horror.

"B-but why!?" Tears started forming and Sasuke turned away.

"I'm not interested in anyone." And so the season of love and emo began.

Within a week, the ninja had actually gained dates. Sasuke, of course, kept rejecting everyone that came up to him. Sakura, for whatever reason, followed the same path. Ino was asked several times, but her silly desire to compete with Sakura overrode that. Hinata was asked out by Neville, and she was too shy to say no (and Ino thought it was the cutest thing to ever exist). Tenten scored a mock date with Kiba. Naruto's fangirls were still working up the courage to ask him and Shino ended up saying yes to a Hufflepuff girl.

—

"Dumbledore," Jiraiya greeted formally. The equally white haired man bowed to the wizard and took a seat in the comfy armchair. The old man smiled and nodded, his hands clasped in front of him. "I would like to request permission to enter the Forbidden Forest for a few hours to do a test Naruto's limits." Dumbledore smiled pleasantly.

"I'm a bit surprised you are asking permission, if I may ask, why is this different then all the other times you've entered the forest?"

"Ehehehe, so you knew about that," Jiraiya laughed unconvincingly. In a single moment, his tone dropped the humor it had into a more serious mood. "Well, I plan to test Naruto in something that I really shouldn't be meddling in on Saturday. But this boy needs to know his own limits. If I do not do this, then he could potentially kill him and lots of other people around him." Dumbledore cocked an eyebrow.

"If I may ask, what makes this boy so dangerous?"

"Dumbledore-san, I'm sorry. But I can't, and I won't tell you."

"But Jiraiya-san, I cannot properly understand your predicament if you do not tell me."

"I still stand." Dumbledore sighed.

"I'm afraid I cannot allow this then. If you are going to do something without reason, then I cannot allow it." Jiraiya looked the man straight in his sparkling blue eyes.

"Dumbledore, Naruto has the power to kill a lot of people, myself included. When I go out there this weekend, and believe me, I will. You need to know this, I may die out there. Remember that sir."

Dumbledore sat dumbstruck as the man walked out. He rubbed his temples as he realized that the man had led him into a trap and there was no way out of it. He was out smarted in his own game. It was brilliant really, using Dumbledore's guilt to get what he wanted without revealing too much information. He knew now that he had better be watching the forest during the Valentines Hogsmeade trip.

—

"So you can't go on the Hogsmeade trip? That sucks!" Ino cried as she tried to comfort Naruto. "Really, what could you honestly be doing that would make you miss Valentines Day? Really, it's Jiraiya! Wouldn't he be egging you on to find a girl? It's out of character!" Naruto laid his head down on the table, depressed.

"Ino, stop, you're not doing anything."

"Well sorrrr-ee." Sakura took a seat next to Naruto and patted his back, he looked up.

"Huh?"

"Really Naruto, you're not going to be missing much. I'm sure that'll be just like every other trip." She smiled at him and his eyes brightened.

"You really think so Sakura-chan?"

"Yep, now get up and enjoy our company!"

—

On the morning of the fourteenth, Naruto grudged out of bed at the same time he always did. Slowly he got dressed, and he went to meet with the other ninja. Just as he had been doing for the last few months. It all went normally, until Jiraiya popped out of nowhere and told him that he had to travel through the forest (which by now was almost entirely mapped out). Naruto groaned and waved a good-bye to his friends who gave him very sympathetic looks.

The blond boy and the old man traveled for a long time, longer than Naruto actually expected. It wasn't until 8 AM that they finally stopped and rested. They had been traveling for and hour and a half.

"Geez, you didn't have to take me so far in! What're we doing anyway?" Naruto huffed and sat crossed legged on a particularly large tree branch. "You've barely spoken the entire trip!" The boy pouted and Jiraiya smiled, finding it endearing. He too, took a seat on a tree branch.

"It's here, Naruto, that we are going to do something unorthodox."

"No crap!"

"We're going to release the Kyuubi."

"Wel–...wait, what? But...wouldn't that cause like...chaos?"

"Naruto, listen very carefully. As the host of the Kyuubi, you have unlimited potential. It's almost impossible for you to ever get weaker with a force like that inside of you. However, if this is left unchecked, if you don't know how much power you can use. I guarantee you're going to cause more deaths than anyone would like. As your sensei, it's my obligation to find out what your limits are." Naruto scratched his head.

"How're you gonna do that?"

"Like this." Jiraiya, started with a few hand seals, Naruto leaned forward, interested in what his teacher was doing. He gagged when a long, long scroll came flying _out of his mouth. _

"Wazzat?"

"This, my boy, is what you could call a key."

"Jiraiya! What on Earth do you think you're doing?" The frog-scroll croaked in a hoarse voice. Jiraiya looked up at it.

"Training."

"And what exactly are you training?" Jiraiya looked at Naruto and turned back towards it.

"Limitations. Please open up." The frog looked down at the man.

"I certainly hope you know what you're doing." Jiraiya shook his head. He hoped he did too. With only a moments hesitation, the scroll expanded. Naruto tilted his head as he saw the strange designs and texts on the scroll. Quietly as the pervert could, he muttered something and made a few more hand seals. He placed his hands on the scroll and a sort of black looking chakra came forth, and onto his fingertips.

"Naruto, get over here." Naruto, with a feeling of dread made his way over to his sensei. Jiraiya reeled back in a practiced motion and for the third time in Naruto's life, he felt a stinging sensation where his seal was located. He fell to the ground, panting deeply.

"What...the hell was that?" He said, still trying to catch his breath. Jiraiya straightened himself up and looked at Naruto.

"I was loosening your seal."

"What? Why? Can't I figure out my limits with my current power level?"

"Naruto, the only way you can even hope to access the Kyuubi's power is if you use up all your chakra. That would take a day in itself. By doing this, we can progress faster. You need to learn this, you NEED to know what can happen if you do not practice self control. By doing this now, you won't have any regrets later." Naruto stopped, pausing.

"What do you mean by regrets?"

"The Kyuubi is a dangerous thing. One inflated ego, and your closest friends may be dead without you even knowing." Naruto blinked, surprised at the bluntness of Jiraiya's tone. He opened his mouth, only to reconsider what he was going to say.

"...But...what if I accidently kill you?"

"Boy! I'm the great Toad Sannin! I dare you to even touch me!" Naruto smiled, reassured by his sensei's confidence.

"I'm ready." With no warning, Jiraiya attacked and Naruto flew back, crashing into one of the trees. He coughed, having lost his breath. He feebly tried to defend himself as the man went into a flurry of various attacks. Naruto forgot about his talk with Jiraiya as he tried to defend himself. In all honesty, he hadn't seen the man go all out on him before. Jiraiya, after teaching him something, would just force him to spar with Sasuke using these new techniques the next day. He...wasn't used to such power. But still, he tried his hardest.

With a cough, he weakly formed the hand sign for Kage Bunshin. He was, once again, punched before he could get the chakra formed. This process repeated itself several times, and in all cases Naruto didn't even have the chance to use his ninjutsu.

Naruto fell to the forest floor, near unconsciousness. '_I-is this what it's like to go against someone you have no hope of defeating...?'_ Jiraiya stopped attacking for the moment, feeling guilt at the defeated look on his students face. The pervert shoved the guilt away and dug under Naruto to kick him up. As he fell against the ground for the second time, he suddenly started to feel energized. Heat overcame the coldness in his body and he felt as if his entire power level had increased. His eyesight became sharper and everything took on it's own red tint. He growled and pounced. The Kyuubi's chakra was released.

Jiraiya stiffened again and began his next barrage of attacks. His taijutsu strengthened and he even began to incorporate ninjutsu. Before long, Jiraiya jumped up onto a particularly tall branch and took a wand out of his jacket. He muttered something and green sparks flew into the air. Before Naruto could climb to the top. The wand was gone and he had jumped.

"Hmph, I thought you'd be a challenge. I suppose I'd best take Sasuke as my student, as you're obviously not up to the job." Naruto growled dangerously. "Hell, you keep saying all this crap about protecting your friends, but you're obviously not up to the job."

And so came the one-tail.

To be frank, even Jiraiya was surprised at the power that Naruto started showing at that very moment. The demon's chakra covered Naruto's body, giving it a very misty appearance. The whisker marks on the boy's cheek darkened and his eyes became more angular. Killer intent filled the surrounding areas. Birds and other smaller animals flew from the forest and Jiraiya began wondering about his own safety.

Jiraiya gasped as a giant red claw was thrown at him. He dodged using every skill he could to keep an eye on the boy. The one-tailed Naruto leaped upon him and Jiraiya rolled out of the way. A surprise Rasengan hit the boy in the side of the face. The hole that, put in a normal person would take them out for a month, healed within moments. However, while the chakra was distracted with healing, Jiraiya used a kick to send the boy flying into the air. With a quick movement, he sent green sparks into the air again.

Before Naruto could pounce him again, Jiraiya, using his own taijutsu moves, moved slickly to avoid being hit.

"So you're trying to attack? I can barely tell. Really, it's becoming such a waste to even consider you for this."

"Shut up!" Naruto's voice come out very hoarse, and Jiraiya vaguely wondered if he was becoming dehydrated.

"You're right. I should change my training for you. I hear you're terrible at regular bunshin. Should we go back to academy jutsu? Are you really that useless?"

Two-tails time.

The red appeared to solidify and so did the killer intent. At this point, even Jiraiya was getting panicked from sheer nerves. It was almost as if he was taking on the Kyuubi himself. In a way, he was. He started a run that would take him closer to the school, but not close enough to be a danger. During his run, he dug the wand out again. Bland yellow sparks made it's way above the forest.

"ACK!" Jiraiya cried as the devil's claw (as he named it) tore into his shoulder. Precious blood squirted out of his shoulders, but he knew he couldn't stop. The rest of the fight became a blur. Jiraiya was absolutely sure at one point he summoned a frog to help him fight, but that frog disappeared, it too, fearing for his life. Somewhere, he knew another two tails had formed and at this point, he knew that unless Naruto's will overcame the fox, he _was_ the fox. When he got the chance, he used his want to shoot dark red sparks into the sky that probably wouldn't be noticed for a very long time. Afterwards, he felt himself being overpowered and it wasn't until Naruto, using the same Devil's Claw punched a hole into his chest, that he realized that he was as close to death as he was ever going to get. Things became blurry as he laid on the ground. But there was something he noticed.

The four-tails was standing over him, a wicked grin overplaying _it's_ face.

"Naruto..." Jiraiya said weakly. The beast above him hesitated for a moment. "You've succeeded. Please... Don't lose yourself." The beast shook it's head and held it's claws over the man. Well...that didn't work. Using that last bit of his chakra, he made a hand seal with one arm. He hoped he was doing this right. Before the claws could tear out his guts, he punched his arm into the head of the creature. His hand fell limp as a huge burning sensation overtook his arm. Hopefully this seal would work... The red chakra started dispersing. Jiraiya fell unconscious seconds before Naruto fell unconscious beside him.

—

"Sakura?" Ino asked as the girl became suddenly distracted. "What's up with you? It's Valentine's day, there's mistletoe, and lonely guys. Put the two and two together!" Hinata blushed at the thought.

"...Ino, mistletoe is Christmas," Tenten whispered. Ino ignored it.

"I dunno. I-I'm gonna go back. See you guys later!" Sakura said. Ino huffed and turned around.

"What's with her?"

"I really don't know," Tenten said.

Sakura made her way back, deliberately picking up pace after a few steps. For unknown reasons, her heart was pounding and fear was making it's way into her mind. She didn't know why, she didn't really care. But she had to make her way back to the school as quickly as possible. By pure chance, she turned her head towards the forest, just barely catching a glimpse of yellow sparks flying pass the tree line. This just enforced her worry. She fell into a full fledged sprint as she made her way to the castle. Her heart was pounding as she fell against her knees, breathing deeply. She would have to work on her leg power later. She rested upon the stone castle, staring at a part in the forest, for a reason unknown to even her.

She sat there for ten minutes, looking at that particular spot. She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them, she gasped. Dark red sparks floated above the forest. Her thoughts drifted to reckless 7th years, but it dawned upon her that all the 7th years were out on dates and that none of them would be in the forest.

And that it was only Naruto out there.

She turned her head and saw Dumbledore, McGonagall, the school nurse, Flitwick and a bunch of other teachers leave the school. This was serious. She stood up and jogged to Dumbledore, who was heading in her direction.

"Dumbledore-sama? What's going on?" He didn't look at her.

"Naruto and Jiraiya are hurt," he said simply.

"What?" Sakura's eyes widened.

"Dumbledore!" McGonagall cried.

"She needs to know," he said, "they're on the same team. Both she and Sasuke share a special bond with Naruto. If I didn't tell her, I'm willing to bet she'd run off and find out on her own." Sakura blushed.

"Dumbledore-sama, how do you know they're hurt?" She paused, realization coming to her. "Y-you knew they'd hurt themselves. Why didn't you stop them!?" Dumbledore smiled.

"You're a smart girl. I didn't want them to do this, but Jiraiya insisted that they do. I just hope he knew what he was talking about..." The red sparks over head sparkled with something that Sakura couldn't see. With a split second decision, she raced into the forest, not heeding the calls of the teachers. Despite the pain within her legs, she ran on and on. Unintentionally, she directed chakra to her feet, making her run faster and faster. What was achieved in an hour for the boys, was achieved by her in thirty minutes. As she leaped from a branch, she found herself in a clearing.

"Oh my god..." she said softly. This clearing wasn't natural, that much she could tell. The trees were demolished by some sort of force. A few impacts had created mini craters and leaves were not only singed, but barely anything more than ashes. This single area of the forest reeked of death and fire. She looked up to spot the red lights, only to realize she was directly under them. With a gulp, she slowly turned around. A sense of horror overtook her as she saw something she would rather never see at all.

Down, on the forest floor, laid both Naruto and Jiraiya, terribly injured. Naruto seemed to be suffering from major burns, considering his normally tan skin was a ripe red. What really got her, was a strange sort of...appearance change. His whisker marks were more bold and stood out more than they usually did. His unruly hair had grown and tangled. His mouth had two little fangs sticking out from under it and his nails were dirty and sharper looking. Her thoughts drifted to vampires, however, that was short lived due to the boy's burn marks. Why would a vampire wield fire?

She moved her gaze towards Jiraiya and she immediately felt sick. He, like Naruto, had burn marks in various places, but this became more serious as her gaze drifted. This man's chest, this _powerful _man's chest had a huge hole in it. The blood was staining the forest floor and she was sure a few of his inner organs were outside of his body. She turned around and barfed up what she had for breakfast. Was this what it was like to see someone die?

Why the _hell _didn't she ever ask Kakashi-sensei for any medical scrolls? They could mean the difference between life and death right now!

Not turning around, she took her wand out of her pocket and sent multiple red sparks into the air. Dumbledore and the teachers needed to get here, and fast.

Even as she faced away from the bodies, tears came to her eyes. What could've done this to both of them?! It didn't make sense! And wasn't Naruto a fast healer? Why wasn't he healing now? What was wrong with the world?!

—

It wasn't until Sakura was sitting near some random door, crying her eyes out, that she noticed Sasuke leaning up against the wall. He looked more troubled than she had ever seen him. She strolled over to him, and he snapped his head towards her.

"You came back too?" Sakura said, her voice hoarse. Tears still framed her face.

"Something was wrong," he said softly. He knew that, even though Sakura was a girl, she wouldn't cry for no reason. "Apparently I was right." Fresh tears escaped her eyes and she fell to the soft green grass.

"Sa-Sasuke," she whispered. "N-Naruto and J-Jiraiya might not l-live through the n-night." His eyes widened.

"What? What's wrong with him, Sakura?!" His eyes took on a crazed look. "Tell me where he is!" She avoided eye contact.

"He's been taken to St. Mungo's. That wizard's hospital." Her cheeks got wet again as she tried to explain to him what happened. "S-Sasuke, something terrible attacked them. J-Jiraiya was bleeding everywhere, a-and I-I think Naruto was attacked by some sort of deranged magical creature. H-he looks different now, Sasuke. It was terrible!" Sasuke glanced towards the direction of the hospital wing. Sasuke turned away from Sakura, knowing very well what was happening. His best friend, his _brother_ could very well be leaving him on this night. Tears escaped his body for the first time in over five years.

"For the love of god, dobe. Don't die on us."

**End of Chapter**

—

_Is Orochimaru getting tedious?_ - I dunno, I find amusement in seeing Orochimaru and his team trying so hard, yet failing all the time.

_Sakura and Ino's characters -_ I feel as if I'm not portraying Sakura and Ino as the manga/anime shows them as around this period of time. As fangirls. Is this bugging anyone? Because I like silly Sakura + serious/mature Sakura that cares about her team more.

_Magic Study - _I DIDN'T FORGET. HONEST.

_Hinata/Neville + Kiba/Tenten -_ Hot. But really, these aren't serious pairings. Just silly Valentines things.

_Limitations thing_ - You've all been waiting for this, haven't you? Did you enjoy my terrible fighting scene? I need to work on that. Did it go too fast?

_Yay Team 7 angst!_ - I like Team seven angst. Just because it's so...it's so...sweet. Really, it's providing so much character development for both teammates.


End file.
